


Terminator: Bond of Steel and Bone

by JasonVUK666



Category: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-08
Updated: 2015-06-30
Packaged: 2018-03-29 15:53:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 23,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3902056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JasonVUK666/pseuds/JasonVUK666
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cameron and John realise what they mean to one another and take their relationship to levels they never imagined they would. A new deadly Machine makes it self known, what is it's mission? Story will Contain Original Characters. - Warning this story will contain scenes of explicit sexual nature, tissues will be needed, you have been warned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A New Chapter in Life. A New Player.

Terminator

Bond of Steel and Bone

Chapter One

A New Chapter in Life. A New Player.

* * *

Fear. It was something always there within him. Subconsciously he was always afraid, sometimes he would admit his fear and rationalise: Machines from an Apocalyptic Future were trying to kill him, it was definitely something to be afraid of. During the day he would go to school, half-heartedly listen to his girlfriend Riley as she spoke, he would barely listen to his teachers normally getting him into trouble, and he hardly ever listen to HER anymore.

John Connor was to be the Saviour of Humanity, he was to lead them to victory against the tyranny of Skynet and its machines: The Terminators. Skynet had attempted to terminate him multiple times throughout his life: once before he was born, once in his earlier teens and once when he was fifteen. He would think to himself _'a boy his age shouldn't have gone through what he already has'_ , now as he lie on his bed staring up at the ceiling in his room, his thoughts travelled back to his first encounter with the deadly machines. His first true moment of the beginning of his living nightmare.

His younger self around twelve or thirteen standing still in shock in the corridor of the mall, two men giving off a feeling of great determination and power, one a thin man with sharp features in a police uniform, the other a hulking behemoth of a man dressed head to toe in black leather a large old styled shotgun in hand pointed directly at him. Those first two words that started his nightmare as from then on he would run.

"Get Down."

Those two words are what ushered in the dark reality of his life, his destiny, and it's never stopped, never too long, always running, always in fear that one day just one slip would ruin everything, just one slip would kill him. Many machines had been close to killing him, no more so than … _her_. The machine that now walked the halls of the same house he lived in, would stand no less than a foot away from him. She had tried to kill him on his Sixteenth birthday and she had nearly succeeded.

From that day on John could no longer look her straight in the eye, to him it was betrayal, she had betrayed his trust and ruined any connection they had, even though the logical side of his mind tried to reason that it was the damage to her CPU, her chip, her _brain_.

The opening of his bedroom door shook him from his thoughts, without moving he turned his gaze towards the door and look to whomever it was.

"John?" came a soft almost timid voice. John watched as the machine walked in she closed the door behind her and stayed there, her eyes never leaving John.

"What do you want?" he asked in an emotionless yet tired tone of voice. She was getting on his nerves more often, he couldn't understand why, just that she was, she would always intrude on his privacy.

"I was checking up on you. Riley just left." Cameron replied in her usual toneless voice.

"I know she left I saw her go. And I'm fine you can go now." John's words were a little harsher than before, he very slightly narrowed his eyes to her hoping or rather praying she would just leave.

"You shouldn't be talking to her John, she's a threat." Cameron had no intentions of moving just yet, she wanted to further press the Riley issue. To her Riley was a threat, a safety problem, her mission was to ensure John's survival and safety and Riley was in her way. She pulled John away from her, away from the one who could provide him the most safety.

"Not this again." John grumbled and pushed himself further up his bed, his back now leaving against the headboard, he turned his gaze back to Cameron and crossed his arms an annoyed expression dawned his face.

"Yes John, 'this again'." she said, she knew that look on John's face, to her own personal dismay she'd been seeing a lot of that facial expression a lot since, John's birthday. Cameron's hand twitched by her side. "She is a health risk John, you should leave her, she is dangerous, she keeps you away from me John, I cannot protect you efficiently when she is around, she acts as a distraction to you in regards to your own safety." Cameron tried to get John to see things from her point of view.

"Look!" he roared standing up from his bed and storming towards her, he cared not if she could kill him with one hand, he was mad. "I've had enough. Get it through you're thick metal head, I want to spend time with her! I don't want this goddamn destiny, this fucking life I've got, do any of you, you, Mom or Derek even think about how I feel about this? I want to live a normal fucking life while I can alright?" John's face was turning red from his rage, Cameron didn't seem to react from it though.

Cameron lowered her gaze from his eyes and looked to the floor.

"I've had enough Alright? Enough Skynet, enough Judgement Day and I've had enough of Machines. Just Leave me Alone" John angrily blurted out. Cameron never looked up to look at him.

"You know I cannot do that John, my mission is to protect you" Cameron replied after a few moments of silence, finally she lifted her eyes to look back at him. "I shall go for now, to let you calm down, but I will not leave you John." Cameron stared into his eyes unblinking.

"Just go away Cameron." John sighed his anger subsiding into depression. Cameron took note of the change in his voice and nodded silently before opening the door behind her and leaving.

John simply stood there as the door closed, he closed his eyes lazily and tried to replay everything that had happened, he had unintentionally exploded at her, in truth he didn't mean too, it wasn't her fault for the way she was, it was her programming, John had simply just lost his cool, and let everything bubble out of it. For now it was a good stress reliever. He knew already he couldn't have a normal life, he just wanted to hold on to what he could to pretend he had one.

* * *

Cameron left the room John's room and walked into her own. She was used to John being negative towards her, he would be upset, he would want her to leave him alone, or order her to go away, Cameron closed her bedroom door behind her then sat upon the end of her bed and stared blankly at the wall infront of her, carefully analysing her situation. She was a machine programmed to protect John Connor, but her target no longer wanted to be around her anymore, not after the 'incident', she knew already this had affected her relationship with John in a negative way, but when she laid at the brink of oblivion, when she had been captured and John removed her chip, he could have ended her, destroyed her chip and her body, effectively killing her. But he hadn't, and in return she told him he couldn't be trusted. She now theorized that doing so was another catalyst of their bad relationship, a mistake of words she now wished she had never done.

Cameron stood up and walked to her window gazing out into the backyard yet her thoughts were still of John and her situation. She was damaged, she knew this, she had been acting unlike herself before the car bomb incident, she had tried to find the root of her problem, but was unable to locate it, her CPU must be damaged she had thought to herself, she had not told anyone, not John, not Sarah, while a machine she had a small sense of self preservation, if she were to inform Sarah of her damaged CPU, Sarah would possibly attempt at her termination, if she were gone she couldn't protect John, John was too important not to protect.

She had to protect him, it was her mission, suddenly she realised the truth of her thoughts. It "was" her mission, after the incident her mission parameters were wiped clean, she no longer HAD to protect John, yet why had she stayed? She had wondered this herself previously, but had guessed she had best follow her previous mission, other than seek his Termination, no, she would not kill John, she would never intentionally harm John, not if she could help it.

Her thoughts moved back to John's protection, without her she couldn't protect him from other Machines, or Grays – humans who worked for Skynet, or just about any threat that arose, humans who had bad intentions towards the Connor family, or Riley. Cameron subconsciously narrowed her eyes in distaste as she thought of Riley, she was indeed a threat, but why did her analysis tell her Riley was a such a threat? True she was a threat to John's safety, but even then her HUD would not tell her Riley was such a high leveled threat. A "moderate" Threat she was labelled as, but Moderate stood for a single unarmed Machine, or a highly trained Human soldier 'armed to the teeth' as humans would say, why was this teenaged girl such a threat. Was she a threat to John? Or more of a threat to herself? And if so? Why?

* * *

All that had transpired upstairs had not gone unnoticed to Sarah. The elder Connor sat at the table in the kitchen drinking a small glass of scotch, her shotgun laid across the table ready for use when ready. Sarah sighed as she finished her small taste of scotch and looked at the small glass in her hand, releasing a deep sigh she placed it down and leaned back in her chair.

' _It's good John's keeping away from it'_ Sarah thought to herself. _'He'll learn how to treat machines the right way'_ Sarah thought grimly, before opening her eyes. She had noticed the way John and Cameron were towards one another before they were close, too close, too close for a human and a machine. While she admitted the T-800 and John were close, she could understand that relationship, John had never had a true father figure in his life. And along comes this thing, this metal man, a man who would never yell at John, never hit him, the machine would always be there for John, and would and did die to protect him.

But Cameron. She … It was the same in that respect, Sarah could appreciate that at least, but she saw how they seemed to become a bit more than just Protector and Mission Target. No, Sarah had an inkling that something else was developing something unnatural, as sad as it was, the Car Bomb Incident seemed to have been a small blessing in disguise, John seemed to hate Cameron. The only problem was Riley, Riley was distracting John, this she could agree on with Cameron, Riley had to go, or John had to stop seeing her, the girl was pulling John into danger, the Cromartie incident in Mexico nearly got John killed.

"God Damn it" Sarah cursed quietly to herself as she tiredly rubbed her hands over her face, Sarah hadn't had a peaceful sleep since 1983 when she encountered the T-800. She had recently become wise to John having similar nightmares, how long? She didn't know, about what? Machines obviously, but specifically what? A T-800? Doubtful, the T-800 John ever knew was a savior to him. These T- Triple Eights? The 1000 series? Or was it Cameron? Since her temporary betrayal.

Sarah turned her gaze to look towards the sofa, she could see the two feet resting upon the arm rest, feet belonging to John's uncle, Derek. Derek had come stumbling in no less than an hour ago. Drunk. The stench of alcohol was coming from him giving the air a foul odor. Sarah grimaced briefly remembering the stink coming off of his body before he fell onto the couch and started snoring almost immediately.

Against her better judgement Sarah stood up and made her way upstairs her shotgun being carried by the forearm in her left hand, and knocked casually against John's door.

"GO AWAY!" came a fast and frustrated reply.

' _Typical John'_ Sarah thought to herself, she shook her head and sighed before answering.

"John it's me, can I come in?" Sarah asked not trying to show too much concern for her son.

"You don't normally bother to knock" John retorted from within his room. Sarah groan audibly.

"I thought I'd be polite for a change." Sarah replied hearing a snerk from John through the door. "Fine I'm coming in" Sarah said with a hint of frustration before walking in seeing her son laying on his back looking towards the ceiling. "John?" she asked concerned.

"Yeah mom?" John asked nonchalantly.

"Everything okay?" she asked without thought, before mentally kicking herself for asking such a question.

"Never better" John said before clearing his throat, his tone never changing from his bored nonchalant tone, his eyes never turning to look at his mother.

"Something's going on John, unless you're starting to yell at yourself" Sarah said, a small smirk growing at the corner of her mouth.

John finally sat up with an annoyed sigh and look at Sarah.

"Would you really blame me if I did mom? How much more fucked up could my life actually get huh? But no, I was…" John stopped as he thought. "… I was yelling at Cameron. She came in here and I don't know, I just lost my temper. I wasn't in the mood to talk with her." he said almost shamefully before scratching the back of his head.

"You want to talk to me?" she asked inquisitively. John just shook his head from side to side.

"Not really, if it's all the same to you, I think I'll just hit the hay. I'm feeling kind of beat." John said before laying back down. Sarah reluctantly nodded before leaving. A small smirk on her face as she looked towards Cameron's room before going back downstairs.

* * *

Deep within the downtown Los Angeles a large man stares at the help wanted AD on the window of the Club, he looks inside seeing numerous kids inside jumping around to music far too loud than it should be, he walked inside calmly yet with authority, and strode up to the bar tender.

"What'll it be buddy?" the bar tender asked turning towards the man, stopping briefly to analyse the large person before him, standing a good foot taller than himself, and probably weighing twice as much in pure muscle.

"I am here for the advertisement in the window" the large man spoke the man continued to stare at the bar tender his eyes never faltering never even seemed to blink.

"I'll eh, just get Max, he's in charge." The bar tender walked off into the back room, the man waited he could hear talking coming from the room, however the loud music blaring out from multiple speakers throughout the room made it difficult to understand what was being said. Within 2 minutes and 23 seconds exactly, the bar tender returned followed shortly by a man dressed in a dark green suit jacket.

"Hey there" the man spoke, presumably Max the club owner. "Name's Max I run this place" now clarified. "You wanted the job offer right?" the tall man before him merely nodded, Max looked him up and down, smirking to himself. "I'd like you to answer a few quick questions that okay?" Max smirked to himself, the man again nodded.

"How Tall are you?" Max asked. The man was silent for a moment before responding.

"Six foot Three inches" The man's tone of voice was blank, emotionless, this just made Max smirk more

"How much do you weigh?" Max asked, the man was quiet for a few moments longer than before, in truth the man, this machine was calculating a realistic response taking in factors of his build and height and averaging a height a human would be.

"210 pounds" the man finally responded, Max nodded.

"Can you fight?"

"Yes" the machine replied immediately.

"Alright, I got a job in mind for you, better than what is advertised, sound interested?" Max asked finally, the man tilted his head to the side an inch.

"What is the job description?" the machine asked in return. Max turned and pointed up at something, the machine followed his pointing finger to a camera looking upon the dance floor.

"Security, nothing too fancy, just sit in a chair looking at cameras, if anyone gets out of line you come out deal with them, throw them out. Interested?" As Max finished the man's eyes opened a little wider.

"Yes" he replied his tone sounding almost enthusiastic.

With that Max led the large man into a room where he found a sleeping man dressed in black who Max angrily woke by kicking him in the side and telling him he was being replaced. The once sleeping security officer stood up to his replacement but looked up to him, noticing not only was this man taller, he also had a bigger build and wider shoulders. The ex-security officer left immediately.

"Welcome to your office." He smirked to the man before continuing. "There are cameras all over the club, I paid good money for my security, I don't like shit going down, get me?" The man nodded slowly. "Shit happens you sort it out, the cameras cover all entrances, exits and various areas in the club. You own a gun?" Max said as he turned to look at large man.

"Not yet" the machine replied, in truth he had come to this time less than a week ago, and began his search for John Connor, reports had heard that John was still a young boy, in this time somehow, that was why he was here, in this club, locals said it was THE place kids go, chances were John may come here, it was better than searching aimlessly.

"Right. Well when you get one feel free to bring it in, security aint much if you aint got a piece right?" he grinned at the man, who smiled back at him, though the returned smile was empty. However this itself was good news to the machine, if he could openly carry a weapon, it would be easier to Terminate his target.

"Right then, let me just get some legal documents about your pay and such, then you can start immediately." Max said as he clapped his hands together, and walked out the room, the machine scanned the room and noticed a locker to the side, opening it revealed a set of jacket labelled "Security" reaching out he picked up one that would fit him, and put it on, he could feel slight padding in the jacket, possibly made to offer protection to the wearer, unneeded but would aid in protection of his skin sheath's torso.

* * *

Riley walked into a café during the time John was yelling at Cameron, she looked around hoping no one would recognise her, to her delight she recognised no one, at least no one she shouldn't be meeting with.

"Were you followed?" came the Australian voice she had come to know, Riley turned around and saw her Jesse Flores.

"No Jesse I wasn't followed, I'm never followed" Riley replied dryly seeing Jesse as over paranoid.

"Never suspect your safe girl, never suspect anything with those…" Jesse looked around and lowered her voice. "those machines. Especially Connor's machine." Jesse narrowed her eyes as she mentioned 'it'.

"I know, I know, you keep telling me" Riley groaned in frustration as she sat down with Jesse, she had heard this all before about how she should fear the Machines, she knew, she herself knew all too well.

"Alright then." Jesse began as she began to relax again, she leaned back into her chair and took a sip of her espresso, she released a soft sigh after the warm liquid slid down her throat. "Report, what's the update?" she looked at Riley expectantly.

Riley smirked at Jesse. "So far things are going great, just today he took me to the Mall and played a little in the Arcade, the machine followed us and John wasn't too happy to see it and sent it away." She spoke in a confidant tone. Jesse closed her eyes, vividly imagining the scene just described to her, a large grin came across her face before she opened her eyes to Riley.

"Excellent. Excellent. Things are going just as they should be. Alright…" Jesse leaned closer to Riley and ushered the teen to come closer to her which Riley did. "… there's a place around here where all the kids go too, a club, you know, loud music, sells alcohol to minors for extra money, the works, take John there and try to get closer to him. If things go well he'll disregard the machine completely and you, well you. Possibly a future Mrs Riley Connor, will be high up in the ranks of the resistance." Jesse's tone was sickeningly soft, Riley now could just imagine herself in the future, no longer running in tunnels, being next to John in a soft bed, her body carrying his child, as he single handedly leads Humanity to victory like some modern day Greek Hero.

"Sound great, where is it?" Riley asked after she left her little dream world, Jesse put a hand into her jacket and pulled out two tickets.

"These are special free passes to the club, had to, pull a few strings to get them" Jesse passed the tickets to Riley who examined them thoroughly, the address was on the back on the ticket along with a very small map of its location, she realised the club wasn't too far away.

"I'll call John tomorrow, tell him about the tickets and the club, see when he's free, if not I'll drag him along." Riley nodded in excitement from the mental image Jesse had put into her head.

"Great. Now then. Coffee?" Jesse asked, seeing as the girl deserved a small treat for her success so far, a happy pawn is a successful pawn.

* * *

John Connor was running, his mother was hurt, Cameron was missing, Derek was missing, he was running for his life, chased by that which had haunted him for so many years. John looked around his immediate area, he was in a factory of sorts, boiling heat resonating from large metal furnaces. He drew his hand across his forehead and wiped the sweat off, he turned back, the slow pacing clacking of shoes upon the ground was heard at a steady rhythm, John panicked and continued to run and evade, just as his mother had taught him. John stopped as he reached a seemingly dead end, he turned around and slowed his breathing down, keeping it quiet to less than a whisper, he could hear the clacking of the shoes louder now, it was close now.

' _Shit'_ he thought to himself looking in all directions, seeing a ledge just above him he jumped with all his might and climbed up trying to distance himself from the Machine. He turned back merely to glance at the lower level he left behind, he still couldn't see it, this machine, that worried- No terrified him. 'Got to keep going' he thought to himself before turning back around to run.

He continued to run, the sounds of crying began to rise up around him, the cries of children for their mothers, the cries of pain and horror, tears began to flow through John's eyes, he could feel it, all of it, the pain, the anguish, the fear. He had to keep running, fore if he did not all would be lost. He ran until he could no longer run, stopping at a dead end near a vat of molten steel.

"This is familiar" John said quietly to himself, he turned around to get away from the dead end, stopping shortly seeing his chaser turning the corner to meet him. The thin sharp featured man dressed in an old style police uniform marched towards him, before stopping briefly.

"This is the end of the line John Connor. You've lost. We've won." The Machine marched forward, a howling was heard all around John, followed by an eruption and intense heat, the factory around him reduced to ashes all except for the molten steel behind him, the Machine marched forward as all around was gone, dead, an army of skeletal machines staring at him as he was now moments away from his demise.

_BEEP. BEEP. BEEP_

John sat up urgently, the sound of his alarm awakening mercifully from his horrific nightmare, the same nightmare he had for years. He groaned placing his right palm over his eyes trying his best to suppress his emotions, to suppress the need to cry, he succeeded- barely. He shook his head from the side to side as he released a breath he had been holding in. It soon dawned on him that he could almost feel someone's eyes on him, he sat there quietly, holding his breath for a moment to listen to the world around him, he heard nothing, which meant one thing…

"What are you doing Cameron?" he groaned without moving his hand away from his face.

"I was watching you sleep John, you look distressed" she replied, a tiny trace of concern in her voice John thought he could sense.

"I've told you before…" John began as he turned to look straight at her, stood motionless in the corner of his room simply staring at him with unblinking eyes. "I don't like people watching me sleep"

"I am aware John, but my systems alerted me that your stress levels were high and your heart was beating faster than it should have been. You were having a nightmare." She stated in a simple factual way, any tone of concern that may have been there gone.

"I was having a nightmare, I know." John panted slowly he could feel the sweat dripping from his forehead and run along the bridge of his nose. "I don't need you to tell me that" he turned his gaze from Cameron back to his bed. Cameron watched him for a moment before stepping a few feet closer.

"I was concerned for your health John. A male of your age should not be showing such signs of stress"

"Most boys my age don't have robots coming to kill them" he spat back his eyes narrowing but he didn't look at her.

Cameron thought for a moment to use the correct term for her kind, but decided against it in case of further infuriating John. "You have a valid point" she conceded. "Would you like me to aid you in relieving any stress?" she asked in a simple innocent manner.

John's eyes opened wide at her question, while a supposed Prophet he was still a teenager, and the way she worded her question put his mind in the gutter.

"Ugh No. I'm fine. Just, can I just be alone for a few minutes." John paused for a moment sweating a little more, a light blush appearing on his cheeks. "Please" he added on absentmindedly.

Cameron tilted her head at the sudden polite tone John was using towards her, and decided to remain courteous to his polite tone, her subsystems told her returning politeness can create a positive relationship with someone, something right now she needed for her mission.

"Of course John. I'm here if you need me" the second part of her sentence came naturally, surprisingly naturally for her, she paused a moment at her own words before walking to the door and leaving.

John watched her leave from the corner of his eye then sighed softly. He felt numb, he didn't feel angry, nor happy, or anything, a sense of numbness was over his body. John turned to look at his clock.

5:45 am

Another early morning rise on a Friday. Oh well at least the weekend was upon him, John hated going to school, but there was nothing else he wanted to do today. John laid back down putting his hands behind his head and looked up to the ceiling. His mind just simply wandered across all that he knew. From his old life with his foster parents, his friends and stealing money from ATM machines, to the meeting with the "Uncle Bob" T-800. All the way up until he met Cameron, first thinking her to be a normal girl.

He remembered that day so clearly, his first meeting with Cameron her smile, John released a content sigh as he thought, she was pretty, still is he thought. But he could never get over what she was, how could he have been fooled so easily. Maybe he just really wanted some nice, cute girl to like him.

John got up and headed to the bathroom to get his shower. He closed his eyes as the warm liquid poured over him relaxing his tense muscles, he released a content sigh, this was possibly the most comfortable he'd be all day. After lathering himself with soap and body gel, and shampooing his hair, John dried himself thoroughly before exiting the shower, a towel wrapped around his body, he opened the door only to see Cameron standing infront of him staring right at him.

"HOLY SHIT!" John shouted in surprise as he jumped back, his skin paling in shock as the hairs on his body stood on end. Cameron tilted her head in the way he had known her to do.

"Are you alright John? Your heart rate has increased again. Are you unwell?" Cameron asked in a deadpan tone.

"No I'm not unwell. Other than YOU scaring me half to death." John complained trying to compose himself he shook his body as he felt his heart beating slower back to its regular pace. "What are you doing out here just standing infront of the door?" John asked as he finally calmed.

"I require the use of the shower." She said as if it had been obvious.

John closed his eyes and let out a slow deep sigh before stepping forward, a sudden cold breeze touching his body, he shivered and looked back to Cameron who's focus had shifted from his face, less than second later John realised his towel had fallen from around his body and now was on complete show to the cyborg girl infront of him.

Blushing a deep red at not only the accident which had befallen him, but Cameron's unmoving stare, and if his mind was not playing tricks on him a small smile twitching at the corner of her mouth, John knelt down picked up his towel and wrapped it around himself as quickly as he could. Once doing so Cameron looked back to John, any possible sign of a smile was gone her expression back to her blank "Terminator face".

"I'll um, just go then." John said his blush still prevalent on his face, he walked forward and Cameron moved back a step to allow him to go, he turned and almost ran to his bedroom, before Cameron spoke up again.

"I notice you've been concealing a large weapon John"

John stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to look at Cameron with a look of disbelief, she stared at him for a brief minute, John could almost feel as if she was laughing at him mentally within her CPU. John turned and rushed back into his room to get dressed.

Cameron smirked to herself as she disrobed inside the bathroom. While she at the time she was trying out "teasing" a topic she picked read from a few girls magazines something which was to attract men, she had to admit, based on internet sources about male adolescence of John's age, height and weight, his flaccid penis was larger than most, that thought process made Cameron curious as to its full length, a thought she immediately moved away from. John barely liked her anymore, he didn't like talking to her anymore unless he really had too, and while Cameron shouldn't have cared, she did have a strange negative sense coursing through her chip that she was unable to explain. Cameron stepped into the shower and began to cleanse her skin sheath.

John slammed his door shut behind him, had … had Cameron been flirting with him. Did a cyborg, a killer machine from the future just compliment him on his penis? John's eyes felt like they were about to bulge out of his head, he let out a deep breath he'd been holding panted slowly to calm himself down.

"She's going to kill me, by a gun, heart attack, or high blood pressure, she's going to kill me" John murmured quietly to himself. Before walking to his bed where he had laid clean clothes ready for himself.

* * *

A few hours later down stairs the smell of burnt pancakes greeted John and he stepped into the kitchen.

"Smells great Mom" John spoke out in an over happy tone. Sarah snickered to herself and turned around.

"Very funny. Keep laughing John and you can start making breakfast" Sarah replied to him as she turned back and continued to make a few more pancakes. John turned to look at the still slumbering form of his uncle laid across the length of the couch. John chuckled once before sitting down at the table, he attention being caught as Cameron made her way down stairs, the machine girl looked at John first keeping a blank expression on her face before turning to look at Sarah.

"Good Morning Sarah" she turned her attention back to John. "Good Morning John"

Cameron got a simple nod from Sarah as a reply.

"Morning" John replied. Cameron smile a little before turning to look at Sarah.

"May I have a pancake Sarah?" she asked in a simple innocent tone. Sarah turned and looked at the cyborg with a raised brow and a look of confusion. "I require filling up on nutrients for my skin sheath for when it becomes damaged" Cameron explained before sitting down next to John. Sarah nodded and turned back around.

Sarah brought two plates to the table one plate for John and the other for Cameron, Cameron's plate noticeably having less pancakes than John's Sarah turned backed around as John slid a few pancakes off his plate and onto Cameron's. Cameron looked and smiled at John taking the act as a kind gesture.

' _Our relationship must be improving if he's being nicer to me'_ Cameron thought, a better relationship would mean John would be more inclined to spend time with her, thus making it easier to protect him and … something else, something which Cameron herself did not yet know.

However as Cameron took it, John gave her the extra pancakes so he himself would not have to eat them, while breakfast is the most important meal of the day, his mother's pancakes were terrible. The flavor all but burnt out of then. John tucked into his pancakes to get them out of the way, wolfing them down to get them into his stomach to use as fuel and keep them away from his tongue. Cameron watched him as she delicately ate the pancakes, a stark contrast to John's animalistic devouring of them, a sudden cough erupted from John's mouth as he felt one chewed piece go down the wrong way, Cameron watched him then passed him a glass of milk, which he took and drank down rapidly drinking the once near full glass down to half way. He released a sigh before following up with a hiccup.

"Excuse me" he said from the awkward moment.

"While it is good to note your strong appetite John, there isn't any need to devour the pancakes at such a rate, I have estimated the pancakes will be sufficiently warm for another 2 minutes and 35… 34 seconds. And as you've just displayed such a rate of consumption could lead to unsatisfactory side effects, as well as choking" Cameron stated in a matter of fact tone, John simply cleared his throat, sitting back in his chair and continued to eat his pancakes eating them at a slower pace, albeit reluctantly.

"Anyway" Sarah spoke up from the side of them, still stood near the stove top. "I've got a new lead on the Three Dots, so I'm going to be busy with them, when he wakes up…" Sarah spoke nodding her head to Derek's sleeping form. "… he'll be checking out any other leads he's been tracking down, you two are to go to school. Okay?" Sarah inquired, not that either had much of a choice.

"Yeah, sure mom" John said leaning back in his chair.

"Of course Sarah" Cameron stated.

John and Cameron continued eating their breakfast only to be disturbed further by the sound of flatulence as the once slumbering Derek Reese awoke and sat up slowly.

"What day is it?" he said groggily as he spun his feet around and placed them on the ground.

"Judgement Day" Sarah stated and watched as the resistance fighter jumped up onto his feet and stared at her in shock and horror. "That got you up. Come on get your breakfast Reese." She continued as she put another plate on the table.

"Not funny Sarah, you shouldn't joke about that, you should NEVER joke about that" Derek told her pointing at her and speaking in an annoyed manner.

"Shut it Reese and eat or I'll throw it out for the birds" Sarah warned staring at him with narrowed eyes.

Derek grumbled to himself before walking to the table and sitting down, picking up his cutlery and start to eat his pancakes making soft groaning noises as he ate, his eyes focused on the pile infront of him. John ate slowly next to him his eyes glancing back and forth to and from Derek with a slight look of irritation on John's face, Cameron however stared straight at the older man as she chewed in a civilised manner.

"Got a problem John?" Derek asked noticing John's glances from his peripheral vision. John just shook his head not wanting to start an argument, and got back to eating.

"What are you staring at Metal?" Derek asked in between chews without even looking up.

"You" she replied plainly, ignoring his term for her, or rather her kind.

"What the fuck for?" Derek asked without raising his voice but his tone no less dark and threatening.

"Because you're making a strange sound, and I wanted to inquire as why you have to make a noise, while John doesn't" Cameron replied still staring at Derek only glancing at John which she spoke his name.

"I don't know, I just got the fuck up, and it's none of your business either way." He replied back annoyed. "So why don't you mind your fucking business."

"Oh but I am." Cameron began. "John is my business, and your noise is irritating him. So could you stop?" Cameron asked trying again to use polite psychology.

"Fuck you. If John's got a problem he can deal with it" Derek said pointing his knife at John in a none threatening way. Cameron stood up abruptly, followed by John who grabbed her arm.

"Come on, it's time for school anyway." John said, leading her away, surprised slightly that she allowed him to lead her, knowing full well they wouldn't have moved if she had no intention of moving.

Cameron and John grabbed their bags and jackets before leaving for school leaving behind an annoyed Derek and a relatively calm Sarah.

* * *

Elsewhere a man stands alone in an hangar impatiently a suitcase by his side, fidgeting with his finger while he waits. He turns at the sound of the hangar doors opening and a car drives in slowly, he smiles to himself calmly and watches as the car stops beside him and a single person gets out, dressed in a hat and long trench coat.

' _Okay a little fanatical but alright, alright.'_ The man chuckled to himself.

"Peter A. Smithers?" calls the hat wearing figure in a strong masculine Californian accent.

"Yeah buddy that's me" the man – Peter replies before kneeling down and holding up the briefcase. "I got the information you wanted" he smiled. "All data for those new computer chips the Military are looking into, this shit is hot. Big grade stuff you know?" Peter replied excited. "You got the money?"

The unidentified person lifts up their own briefcase.

"Right here buddy, Three point Two million just as we agreed" the figure steps forward towards and passes the Peter the bag.

"Thanks fella. But I'm sorry it's got to be this way" Peter smirks as two other men step out wielding cut down Remington 870s.

"It's only business" Peter smirks as he himself pulls out a Russian Tokarev TT-33 pistol.

"From what I heard from your boss, I'd have thought you'd have brought some guys with you. Your problem you're so trusting" Peter smirked.

"Check the Trunk" the figure said without any other word. Peter looked at one of the shotgun wielding men and nodded to him, the figure threw the man the keys to the car who then walked to the trunk, unlocked it, then opened it up.

"Jesus!" The man gasps as the putrid stench of corpses rises through his nostrils. The man looks up to the figure, who turns around with inhuman speed pulls the shotgun out of the man's hands by force fires one shell into other shotgun wielder by the trunk killing them. Peter gasping turns around and fires multiple shots from his Tokarev into the torso of the figure, the figure looks down at their torso before pumping the Remington and seemingly nonchalantly points the shotgun over their shoulder and fires a shot of 12 gauge into the gun's owner.

"Like you said," came another voice, this one female and British, Peter looked around as he fumbled to reload, "It's only Business" he turned to the location of the voice. The figure infront of him who slowly removes their hat revealing the smirking face of a confidant raven haired woman.

"A… a woman?" Peter asks before the woman cocks the Remington and aims it one handed directly into Peter's face and obliterates it in a single shot, repaint the floor behind him red and grey.

"Should have just taken the money Pete" the woman smirked as she picked up both cases and walking outside, her eyes flashing red momentarily.


	2. Girls. Guns. Computers and Food.

Thank you everyone for taking an interest in my story. I hope you enjoy what is to come.

* * *

 

Terminator

Bond of Steel and Bone

Chapter 2

Girls. Guns. Computers and Food.

* * *

 

To John, nothing would ever feel so mundane, so pointless as what he was doing now; going to school. He knew what he needed to know, he didn't need to know about some English poet who's been dead hundreds of years, he didn't need to know the geographical layout of the world. Well actually now that he thought about he _might_ need that, for when Skynet attacks and he needed to set out plans and possible traps for Skynet forces. Math he didn't think he'd need. He guessed some of his Resistance members would be adequate at mathematics.

John groaned to himself how school was pointless, but at least it was something to preoccupy himself, maybe Riley would be in today, he had noticed the girl liked to skip school a lot, not that he'd complain, he did too if given enough reason.

The walk to school had been quiet, uncomfortably quiet. John's eyes rarely moved from in front of him, only turning to check the traffic as he crossed the road, Cameron however though she kept pace with John, her eyes were always subtly looking everywhere, scanning the area for threats.

After so much silence a thought came into Cameron's CPU.

"John?" She asked as she turned to look at him, she watched as John shook his head as if awakening from a daze, he turned to look at her a raised a curious brow implying for her to continue. "What do you see in Riley?" she asked.

John blinked for a moment not totally comprehending what she had asked, his mind stuttered for a moment, what _did_ he see in Riley? She was lively, a bit _too_ lively for his taste, but lively none the less. She was cute, not what he'd call beautiful, his vision of beauty was something more along the lines of ... John stopped that train thought before it got too far, a slight blush rushing over his cheeks, she was human, Riley was human, that much was okay he guessed. To be honest he really couldn't see what his attraction was to her. Was she just an excuse for him to escape from his horrific world that was his life?

"Well…" John finally said as he got his mind into order. "She makes me laugh, and I enjoy spending time with her." He lied to Cameron, a bit too easily he noticed, lying in the Connor family was a trait they'd mastered down to a tee. They were professionals at lying and could be given the black belt in the ancient arts of lying. "She just you know? She makes me feel normal." He concluded with a fake smile.

For all John's lying expertise, they fell short to a true grand master such as Cameron, she had known John and the Connor family long enough to know a lie when she saw one. She hesitated to point out the fact he was lying, but let it slide, to do so could further distance him from her, she analyzed that if John felt like he had some superiority over her no matter how small this could improve their relationship allowing him to be more comfortable around her.

"I see. But do you think she is beautiful?" Cameron asked staring into his eyes. John blinked once in confusion Cameron decided to elaborate her question. "You did not mention that she was beautiful nor anything along with her psychical appearance. Do you not find her physically appealing?" Cameron asked.

' _Fuck.'_ John thought, she'd caught him on something, not the fact that he was lying or so he thought, but on the fact he never mentioned Riley's appearance.

"I'm not that shallow," John replied with a faked offended tone. "I can see past a girl's looks you know, I'm not a pig." John explained. "And if you must know, I do find Riley nice looking" John finished smugly.

Cameron tilted her head as she furrowed her brow analyzing all that he had said. "I know you are not a pig John, pigs are of the bovine family; you are human." Cameron tilted her head back to a straight position watching as John chuckled.

"No, 'being a pig' means that you think like an animal, and look at women just for their physical appearance, or something like that anyway." John had guessed that was what the term meant, he'd heard it in context before but never really looked up the true meaning.

"I know. I fooled you John." Cameron said with a small smile on her face. John smirked at her then looked ahead again, the smirk turning into a small smile like Cameron's.

' _John is reacting positively towards me, he gave me his pancakes, he is smiling at me, and has not yet yelled at me. Our relationship is finally improving to more suitable status. I should continue with this behaviour conditioning, perhaps in time, I could get John away from … her.'_ Cameron thought to herself a smile on her face, no one would notice the annoyed twitch in her right eye and left hand when she thought about Riley.

' _What's going on Connor?'_ John thought to himself his face not portraying the conflict brewing in his mind. _'You push her … it, away last night, and now she's acting like this. What are you doing? What's happening?'_ John exhaled audibly, trying to cover the sigh. _'She's been acting a little differently since this morning. What is she up to and what is with the questions?'_

* * *

 

Finally the two entered the school grounds and walked up towards the school doors.

"Hey John!" came a familiar voice from behind them, John and Cameron stopped and turned around, John having a small smile on his face Cameron looking otherwise uncaring.

' _Riley'_ Cameron thought to herself seeing the young blonde girl run up and hug John, however she noticed John tense up, however minimal it was, she noticed it. _'John is not as comfortable as he says'_ Cameron realized as she watched him, slowly put one arm around the girl and pat her on her back.

"Hey Riley" John said doing his best to sound as happy to see her as she was apparently to see him. To his own credit he sounded happy enough.

"So John you have fun yesterday?" Riley smiled at him, John smiled back to her as Cameron looked between Riley and John confused.

"Yeah Riley it was great fun" he continued to smile, his own not sounding over enthusiastic.

"Fun? What did you do yesterday John?" Cameron asked now only hearing about something which had happened.

"Oh I took John out for some fun. Sorry you couldn't be there but you were … where?" Riley asked her hands still clinging to John as she turned to look at Cameron.

Cameron had been out following some leads Sarah was looking into regarding the three dots and hopefully Skynet. Her mission took her to the far end of the city and was away for most of the day, in the end the lead ended up in a pile of corpses of Mexican drug runners using a symbol similar to the formation of the three dots, and were dealing in stolen computers, nothing even similar to Skynet activity, and all Cameron had to show for her effort were some bullet wounds, wounds she reminded herself she had to tend too, her thoughts about John such as from the previous night had uncharacteristically distracted her from other similar tasks.

"Mom called school and informed them I had a virus. It was nothing a little sleep and soup couldn't cure," Cameron informed the annoying blonde of the cover story, her gaze turned towards John, "right John?" she asked him, having him back the story.

Riley looked from Cameron up to John who nodded slowly while scratching the back of his head with his left hand.

"Yeah, Cameron wasn't feeling too well, we thought she was catching a cold, thankfully whatever it was, was gone by the end of the day." John informed his 'girlfriend' or so she called herself.

Riley seemed uncaring either way and shrugged.

"Well I'm so happy your back here instead of in bed, away from John" she said with obvious sarcasm in her voice.

"So am I." Cameron said choosing to ignore the sarcastic tone and stare daggers at Riley causing the girl to flinch noticeably.

The trio turned and walked into school going to their home room sitting at their designated desks, John put his bag under his desk then laid his head on the desk itself before closing his eyes. Cameron looked at him and was about to inquire about his health when Riley spoke up.

"What's the matter John? No sleep?" she chuckled a little to herself as John turned his head to look at her and opened one eye.

"Yeah plenty of sleep." He said sarcastically. "But I just wanna rest my eyes." His words were barely understandable, but Riley could understand, just. She shook her head and chuckled again before leaning back in her seat.

Cameron narrowed her eyes at the blonde girl. Her CPU listing multiple possibilities at the girl's Termination, to simple things as merely shooting her in the head, ranging up to breaking her neck, all the way too tying her up, gagging her and sawing her in half with a rusty hacksaw. The last thought made Cameron's mouth twitch into a small almost unreadable smirk. She looked back to John who was once again resting his forehead on the desk his eyes, or rather the eye she could see, closed.

' _If Riley cared as much as she should she'd be worried about John's health'_ she thought, taking this as her opportunity to further their relationship Cameron leaned forward towards John.

"John, is something wrong?" she whispered not wanting to draw much attention to others, John turned to look at her and opened both his eyes.

"No I'm fine, just a little migraine, it'll pass." He explained hoping it would suit his cyborg protector.

"If it gets worse inform me, I will scan you to check if there is something irregular in your head." She said looking at him intently, John noticed her look and gave her a small yet genuine smile.

"Thanks, I guess." He said just as the sound of footsteps were heard at the front of the class.

"Alright Class." Said Mr Henrikson, the classes’ teacher. "Time for Role Call" he spoke just as the school bell rang outside signalling for students to enter their home-rooms immediately.

* * *

 

Derek Reese was sat on the floor in the basement, reloading the magazines of their various sidearms and small-arms with their allotted calibre rounds. His eyes and hands worked expertly as they dismantled and reassembled the various guns the Connors had acquired since their first move through time. A collection of Glock 17 9mms. Not including Cameron's personal one she keeps in her room when unable to carry it. His own Beretta M92 laid just at his feet already gone through his strict maintenance check, his hands already working on Sarah's Smith & Wesson automatic 45 calibre. He chuckled to himself as he worked the slide from the gun.

' _Big gun for a little lady'_ he shook his head, knowing Sarah would hit him if she heard him. Derek looked over the slide checking every detail like it was a piece of fine art before inspecting the rest of the pistol, once satisfied he reassembled the pistol and slid the magazine back into the grip and racked the slide chambering a round.

Derek looked up to the rest of what he had to do. There was Sarah's Remington Shotgun, there was the Benelli M1 Shotgun Cameron had picked up and used to all but destroy Cromartie in Mexico.

' _Bastard metal'_ Derek thought to himself as he remembered Cromartie.

Derek shook his head and groaned to himself tired. He was still suffering from his hangover, his favourite pass time, other than blowing away metals, was checking the tool of his trade. It was like his own style of mediation, it brought him peace, prosperity, and allowed him to be alone with the things he could count on most; guns. He stood up turning away from the assorted weapons and left for the kitchen.

Once there he found Sarah had already left, he hadn't noticed her departure or notice her drive away, so focused was he in his own thoughts as his hands worked their routine over the weapons. He walked to the fridge and opening it and gazed inside at what he could aid in the removal of his dreadful hangover.

"Salad, left over pancakes from this morning- no thank you. Meatloaf, I'd rather listen to him sing." He grumbled quietly to himself his hands moving into the fridge and began to rake around for some edible and tasty. Finally he came to small packet of bacon, and shrugged to himself as an idea spawned in his mind he grabbed the packet then grabbed an onion as well, he closed the fridge door.

Derek walked back into the basement a small plate stacked with a multi layered bacon cheese burger with fried onions with ketchup and mustard.

"Calories?" he said to no one in particular at the time he was cooking the bacon and the burgers which he found in the freezer. "Go fuck yourself" he had chuckled. Life living on scraps of coyote would lead a person not to care about what they ate. What he had now would be considered a delicacy back in 2027.

Derek sat back down placing the colossal burger beside him and grabbed a Heckler and Koch MP5K compact submachine gun. a weapon they had taken from Cromartie along with several magazines and boxes of Ammo from the machine's car. Derek checked over the weapon, as he thought about current events. After so long they'd finally gotten rid of Cromartie, the bastard Machine nightmare that had stalked him and the Connors … and the OTHER metal, since he cared to remember, only to have the bastard thing vanish without a trace later on, he suspected James Ellison, but Cameron had already interrogated him thoroughly, or so John had told him and Sarah.

Checking the weapon he held was alright he placed it by his side then picked up his large sandwich, he looked it over, squashing it a bit trying to get it to fit into his mouth, ketchup and mustard oozed from the side, to no avail, he cursed human inability to open their mouths wider. He took a bite from the side, letting the flavours hit his tongue, he chuckled and moaned in delight, he was no chef, but the damned thing tasted good. The perks to going back in time he had told himself.

Placing it back down he licked sauce and small bits of onion from around his mouth then picked up the standard full sized MP5A2s he and Sarah had used against Cromartie. Derek looked over one of the submachine guns taking in its appearance, and his knowledge of the weapon. During the early years of the war he had used an A3 version of this gun, with a collapsible stock, a sight attached to the top and a flashlight under the barrel, real SWAT styled weapon, it was an old favourite, he had found it in good condition in a destroyed police station; somehow it, a few magazines and some boxes of ammo had survived, and he had used that weapon to fight some old model machines. Nothing beyond a 500 series though. He sighed.

' _Maybe I'll try and get one like that, see if Sarah could locate one for me.'_ He pondered to himself, thinking of fond, yet still horrific memories. He checked over the two weapons before putting them back. Derek continued to sort through the weapons for his high standards of conditioning while taking bites out of his Empire State Burger.

* * *

 

Back at school the lunch bell rang signalling the students and the staff to get their lunch. John groaned as his stomach growled, his mother's pancakes were as filling as they were tasty, which left much wanted out of a meal such as breakfast.

' _If I don't eat Skynet won't NEED to send a machine to kill me'_ he thought glumly as his stomach growled more. John moved through the crowd of students towards the cafeteria, hoping there would be at least some chicken on, or maybe even some decent pizza, God willing anyway.

"Hey John!" Riley called out as she squeezed past two large Jock type students, the type who look more like shaven Gorillas than humans, and ran up to John. "John can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked smiling at him.

"You mind if we walk and talk? I'm really hungry" he begged Riley, she smiled in return and nodded. The two began to walk together to the cafeteria, John didn't notice he had somehow lost Cameron in the crowd, he guessed Morris had slowed her down somewhere trying to ask her out on a date, or something else as suicidal.

"Right well. A friend of a friend was able to get tickets to this cool club in town, and I was wondering if you wanted to go …" Riley paused looking around before leaning closer. "Word on the street is the club sells Alcohol to underage kids for some extra money. A little more pricey than usual but totally worth it, you wanna go?" she smiled a large toothy smile to him.

John for his part had picked up the main parts of what Riley was telling him, club, tickets, alcohol, and did she say George Washington or was that his hunger derived imagination?

"Ugh sure, sure, sounds fun." He said, his mind not entirely focused on the subject at hand.

"Awesome! Like we'd have to go tonight at the latest since the tickets become null and void by one in the morning." She said feeling a little awkward at the moment, John looked at her briefly but shrugged.

"Yeah sure that's cool. Meet up at about seven or right tonight?" he asked.

"Could you make it six-thirty? Then we can hang longer," she asked back smiling.

"I guess so." He said as they finally reached the cafeteria.

Unknown to them Cameron hadn't been too far away she had seen Riley move towards John and had hung back in order to ease drop on them, she didn't know what happened the other day, but she'd find out sooner or later, however she would not leave John alone this time. Especially with that bitch-whore.

Cameron did a quick scan of her calorie intake, scanning through what further things such as fat, sugar, and proteins she needed in order to keep her organic sheath looking as it did and ensure her wounds healed at the quickest speed, once she removed the bullets that is. She found she needed to ingest a few more calories and such before her metaphorical tank was filled. With this Cameron followed John and Riley into the cafeteria, she too hoped there would be at least something remotely edible inside.

 In the line for the food John found himself between Riley and Cameron. To other men, being stuck between two women who for their own reasons want you with a passion, this is an ideal situation. To John, it's incredibly awkward, turning back to see Cameron he would catch her either staring blankly at him, or scowling in Riley's direction as if John himself wasn't there, if he looked ahead he would find Riley either smiling up at him showing her pearly white teeth or trying to hide herself from Cameron using John as a barrier.

John groaned to himself letting out a long drawn out sigh. He could just barely hear himself think over the sound of talking around the cafeteria. And that was _before_ the Jocks entered. In this school, and supposedly many other schools across The United States; jocks thought themselves better than everyone else, the teachers didn't seem to care, especially since these certain Jocks were going to be in some form of big league, possibly put this school on the map, get some reputation, maybe even a large sum of prize money. With all this in mind the Jocks were more or less treated like kings or Gods, the majority of girls fell to the Jocks feet in worship, the geeks paid them not to have the snot kicked out of them.

' _Like they were ripped out of a terrible movie'_ John thought to himself as the Jocks grabbed trays and pushed into the crowd. One unfortunate Jock pushing infront of John making him stumble back only to have Cameron catch him from tripping over himself. Cameron looked towards Riley to see if she would do anything to defend her … 'boyfriend'. Nothing, the timid girl looked down trying to not make eye contact. Cameron glared at the girl before turning her attention to the Jock.

"You are in John's place" she said, John turned to looked at her hoping he could stop her from saying anything else. The Jock ignored her, she narrowed her eyes further, giving him a cold death glare.

"Cameron it's fine." John tried to reason with her, normally she would have stopped, but today, for whatever reason, even to her she didn't know why she was willing to push the subject further.

"You are in John's place" she said raising her voice, the Jock who had been looking over what he wanted finally turned to look at her, he grabbed John and moved him aside before looking down at her, the size difference was immediately noticeable, Cameron standing a fairly average Five foot Six was dwarfed by the near Six foot Jock.

"Or what freak? You gunna keep staring at me?" The Jock spoke out in a rude tone of voice as he poked Cameron in the chest just above her breast to try and further his dominance.

' _Please don't kill him, please don't kill him.'_ John thought or more rather prayed that Cameron didn't kill the idiot Jock in front of her who had no idea how close to death he truly was.

Cameron grabbed the Jock's finger between her own index finger and her thumb and began to squeeze it, the Jock yelped as pain rushed through his arm as he felt the pressure around his bones.

"You were in John's place, I humbly suggest you move to the back of the line. Now." Her cold tone of voice left no room for argument, the Jock was already on one knee and nodding his frantically, Cameron let go and watched as the Jock, who was petting and caring for his finger like a new born child, moved to the back of the line his ego shattered.

Cameron turned to look at John and smiled, John walked back into his place, more than a few people were now watching them with looks of both horror, shock and amazement.

"What was that?" John asked in a hush voice.

"I was defending you" Cameron said rather proud of her act. John rubbed his forehead which was now sweating. He knew Cameron was to protect him from death or injury. But doing something like this? Something as mundane as defending his place in the lunch line of a half assed High School?

"The hell did you do?" came Riley's whiny voice, Cameron's smile immediately vanished as she turned to look at Riley, giving her, her patented blank facial expression.

"I was defending John. Something you should have done if you cared about him as much as you say" Cameron replied, her words came from her mouth before she even calculated a response, a look of confusion was seen in Cameron's eyes for a brief second, to many they wouldn't have noticed the difference, however John noticed. Riley just stared at Cameron with a look of surprise at such a response.

"I do care about John, but that guy was like a gorilla" Riley complained trying to defend herself.

"Incorrect, unlike popular belief Gorillas vary in size just as much as humans, while some subspecies of Gorilla can reach six foot, many reach around average human height, and while the boy may be strong, a Gorilla of any kind is far more powerful in terms of physical abilities, however you and I are about the same height and mass, yet it was I who defended John, why couldn't you?" Cameron reasoned and retorted back, she refused to lose an argument to this girl.

"Yeah well I don't have a death wish, like some mentally challenged people" Riley spat back before putting John between herself and Cameron.

John could see the look on Cameron's face and mentally groaned, Riley was just digging herself a deeper and deeper grave.

"Riley please don't make fun of Cameron, okay? And Cameron thank you for defending me." John said to Riley as he looked over his shoulder as he tried to defuse the situation.

Riley and Cameron both looked at him in mild surprise both for their own reasons.

"You're actually defending her? You hate your sister." Riley argued, Cameron tiled her head at John, a slight look of hurt on her face at Riley's words.

"I don't hate her Riley, sure she can get on my nerves, but we're only human right?" John replied looking over his shoulder again to look at Riley. Riley grimaced but said no more and John turned back around to face the right way in the line.

Cameron smiled at John, a genuine happy smile. _'John appreciated my help, he defended me against Riley. Improvements are already showing. This is satisfactory'_ Cameron thought to herself, pleased with how her new behaviour conditions seemed to already be affecting her relationship with John.

The trio sat down at a free table away from others John sat next to Riley with Cameron opposite him. John looked down at his tray at the slice of pizza he had gotten for himself, the pizza itself looked like something that had been found in the back of a freezer from the year 1980, in short it looked unappetizing but his stomach grumbled hungrily, at this point he felt like he'd eat anything, anything except his mother's pancakes that is.

The sound of another tray touch the table was heard from beside Cameron, the three turned to look up at the owner of the tray.

"Hey guys" said a rather happy Morris as he sat down.

"Hey Morris" John replied giving his friend a smile.

John did kind of like Morris, he was the closest thing to an actual friend-friend he had, and John although would never show it, was rather appreciative about his relationship with Morris, the boy was nice, and helped John when he could. Morris was another of the few things John had which could be classed as "normal", something which made John feel at least somewhat like a normal teenager.

"Hey Cameron" Morris greeted enthusiastically, giving her his best smile. Cameron looked at him and gave him a brief smile to be polite.

It was no secret Morris had a thing for Cameron, she herself figured it out, rather reluctantly sometime after her CPU had become damaged, this little fact she decided was worrying, as she herself cared little for him, especially in the way he seemed to care for her.

The four, or rather Riley and Morris chatted between the other two while Cameron and John either replied to question, or in terms of John pitched in little with the conversation. Cameron's focus staying mostly on John.

Before long they'd had their fill. John not so much due how appetising every meal he'd eaten thus far in the day had been. Cameron had noticed his expressions as he ate the unsavoury food. She herself could tell the food was bad, she didn't need such an advanced biological tasting system to tell her that.

' _John needs proper nourishment with good taste. Perhaps I can cook for him, that could also make John more accepting of my advice and let himself be nearer to me.'_

Cameron made a note in the CPU to cook John some food, something healthy, but not what he had called "rabbit food", she brought up a list a foods John would like finally stopping on one she smiled.

' _John would probably like steak. 93.6% of American males of John's age like steak'_

As they walked Cameron listed possibly spices, sauces and cooking styles that would maximize the taste and health value of a large piece of steak, and couple it with various other foods.

* * *

 

Sarah walked out of a large computer company building dressed in a formal jacket, skirt and high heels, her hair had been done up into a bun while she wore glasses with standard glass as fake lenses, everything put together to make her look formal and professional which made her blend in with the meeting which had just occurred. She walked carefully towards her car, at the age of 35 she was still not used to walking in high heels. The last time she had was in the early 80s. Thankfully Cameron and John had put together a simple series of answers and basic information that Sarah could just understand so that she would appear like someone interested in financing computer technology.

"Alright," Sarah said to herself quietly as she got into the back seat of her car then she swapped out her high heels for her more preferred combat boots, reaching into her hair she pulled out the hair bobble allowing her hair to hang down then shook her head to get it to settle back down into its usual place. She then moved and sat in the driver's seat before turning her car on and reversed out of the parking lot.

"Michael P. Hamburg" she said from memory, she had asked her interviewer who was the leading benefactor of a new series of computer technology. Not only was he rich from the success from the technology patented and sold by his company, he along with two others were the leading minds in creating the technology. To Sarah this was ominous: on one hand it could have been something as harmless as a new generation of Laptops or something, however on the other hand, they could be building Skynet.

She considered sending Cameron to look in on the guy, possibly come up with some cover story then again while she was able to fool a few people, she couldn't fool everyone but the Machine at least would have a better idea of what to ask and understand more techno babble.

Sarah groaned and shook her head, even during the interview she could _just_ keep up with what was being said, she knew she wasn't a technological whiz like John was, but she thought she'd have learned SOMETHING by now. Hell she couldn't figure out computers back in the 90s let alone now.

"I need some food, or I'm gunna start eating the car." She groaned to herself before pulling over to a small diner.

* * *

 

 The rest of the school day had gone along as John would have expected; boring. At least it was the weekend now, two whole days of no school. In this fact, he felt like a normal kid, he hated school and loved weekends.

"I'll see you later John!" Riley called out as she waved bye to him, to which he replied with a half-hearted raise of his hand.

"Thank God that's over" John groaned to no one in particular as he and Cameron turned and walked towards home.

"I know. Riley's presence is insufferable" Cameron commented in return.

John looked at her curiously with a raise brow of confusion.

"Don't start again with Riley, Cameron. She's just being nice." He said with a little frustration.

Cameron sensed his frustration, and quickly sought out a suitable response.

"I'm sorry John. I'm sure Riley is a nice person." she lied to John in her monotone voice, hoping he'd accept her apology.

John put his hand over his mouth to cover a chuckle. Though others wouldn't be able to tell, John could tell she was lying, he seemed to know her well enough.

' _I must be careful with what I say about her around John.'_ Cameron mentally noted. She would never like Riley. It would take something phenomenal to make Cameron like Riley, but until that event happened, she would always hold the girl with disinterest and categories her as a threat. In truth Cameron would have terminated her the day she saw her if John would not have been so hurt by the event. But too little too late; Riley loved John, and John it seemed, tolerated Riley. Cameron was sure he didn't truly return her love, at least not to such an extent.

She knew of Riley's plan to take John out tonight, so she would follow and protect John from a distance in case of danger, or Riley decided to get too comfortable with John.

* * *

 

Later during the day, John was in his room listening to music trying to relax as Cameron opened the front door to the house and stepped in just coming back from patrol.

"See anything?" Sarah asked as she looked through a large plastic menu.

"No threats." Cameron said and paused for a moment as if recalling everything she saw. "There are some underage kids of about 12 to 14 drinking alcohol, and there was a homeless man asleep on the sidewalk."

Sarah looked up from the menu to look at the girl with a confused and disgusted look on her face.

"Right." Sarah looked back over the menu before speaking again. "I've got something for you to do tomorrow, my lead came up with something, a Michael P. Hamburg, sounds German, he's some interesting high up tech guy, see if you can get John to find out more about this guy. I want you to get in touch with the guy, talk to him, interrogate him if necessary, and see if what he knows or what he's doing is Skynet development."

Cameron nodded to Sarah before turning to towards the stairs climbing them to reach John's room. She knocked waiting for a reply.

"Yeah?" came John's voice muffled by the music.

"John, may I come in?" Cameron asked staring at the door as she did.

"Sure." John replied.

Cameron opened the door and watched as John reached over and paused his music.

"Everything okay out there?" he asked, starting conversation.

"No threats, however there were some drunken young teens throwing up on a sleeping homeless man on the street." Cameron decided to give John a more detailed version of what she told Sarah, Cameron watched as John's face twisted in disgust.

"Kids these days," he grumbled before shaking his head, “man I sound old."

"You are more mature for your age in most aspects." Cameron informed him, hoping it sounded complimentary, John's smile confirmed her hopes.

"Thanks." He smiled to himself as he looked up to the ceiling.

"Sarah would like you to research a Michael P. Hamburg, he sounds German, she wants me to seek him out tomorrow and find out what he is up to; Sarah believes he could be part of Skynet development." Cameron informed him.

John nodded before jumping out of bed then walked over to his desk, sitting down he turned his laptop on and waited for it to boot.

"What pizza would you like John?" Cameron asked out of nowhere.

"What?" he asked as he turned to look at her confused about her strange question.

"Your mother just shouted, she is ordering take out and wanted to know what pizza you wanted." Cameron explained.

"Oh um could you tell her pepperoni, please?" He asked adding the ‘please’ as an afterthought.

Cameron tilt her head ever so slightly then smiled a little at the polite request, it showed that their relationship was definitely improving, in truth she had wondered why she hadn't tried this approach before, she turned around and opened the door and looked down the stairs only to see Sarah climbing up them.

"John would like pepperoni please Sarah." Cameron informed the elder Connor had stopped once she heard Cameron's voice and looked up to the cyborg.

"Yeah I'd like a medium Ppepperoni too please…" Sarah began to talk down the phone.

"Could I have a cheese pizza Sarah?" Cameron asked, Sarah looked at Cameron as if she'd said that Skynet was a pacifist. "…please?" she added on. Sarah rolled her eyes in response.

"And a small cheese pizza as well." Sarah added on down the phone before the walked back down the stairs.

' _This_ b _ehaviour conditioning is effective'_ Cameron noticed before going back inside John room and closing the door behind her.

"Alright Michael P. Hamburg." John began as he looked up what he could about him through various sites, ranging from Wikipedia, to his own personal webpage. "Guy was born in Berlin, Germany in 1971, graduated in computer, then moved to America and since then has become the owner of his own company, dealing in computers and some robotics company." He said looking towards Cameron. "You want me to leave the laptop on so you can do some research?" he asked her.

"Yes please John." She gave him a small smile before walking towards his desk as he got up and laid back on his bed. "Is it alright if I sit here?" she asked turning to look at him as he laid back down.

"As long as I can keep my music on, go ahead." John bargained as he rested and put his music on. Cameron nodded in return sitting on the chair and began research more about Michael, his business, and what projects he has not only financed but technology he had a hand in creating. 

* * *

 

Elsewhere in the city in a lone apartment a dark figure sat and stared at the computer screen in front of them, their glowing red eyes reflecting from the screen as they analyzed the information. Beside them an open briefcase with information about new Computer technology in development by Hamburg Industries, and a small sample of that new technology, a piece of tech beyond what today's buyers were given, the technology was far more military in scale.

"Michael P. Hamburg." The figure said in a toneless mechanical voice, it reached out with its right hand and picked up a mug of tea and brought it to their lips, sipping it quietly, pausing the red eyes stared at the tea. "Needs more sugar," it noted before placing it back down.

The figure analyzed that Michael would be in tomorrow and was looking for new and fresh minds to be a part of his company, tomorrow it would make its move, to determine what he agenda is, then after that he would either live, or he would die. 

* * *

 

"Pizza guys here" Derek bellowed out loudly before turning back to look at the pizza delivery guy. "How much?" Derek asked.

"Thirty-four-fifty." The guy, a teenager, with a bad case of acne, replied in a dull monotone voice.

' _I've seen corpses with more life than this guy'_ Derek thought to himself as Sarah walked up behind him with the money in hand.

"Here" She said giving the teen, who she too noticed needed to be introduced to some facial wash, the exact change he needed, Derek took the pizzas from the teen before closing the door.

Derek helped Sarah open up the various boxes, and look over what Sarah had ordered, which incidentally came with a free bottle of Pepsi.

"Pizzas here!" Sarah yelled upstairs before turning back and getting out a plate for them. Derek noticed four plates.

"Who else is having pizza? You invite Charlie over?" he looked to her as she put the plates down.

"No, we've ruined his life enough I think, we should leave him alone a while." Sarah sighed, remembering they had inadvertently gotten Charlie's wife killed. Murdered by Cromartie in hopes to get to John.

John came down followed by Cameron, and saw the four plates set out with the opened pizza boxes, the fries, and the southern fried chicken.

"You get what you want and take it to your room if you want too, any mess though and your cleaning it" Sarah told John and Cameron, Derek not knowing Sarah was also referring to the latter.

John got what he wanted and surprising to Derek watched as Cameron put the small cheese pizza onto her plate.

"Wait, the metal gets food?" he looked at Sarah credulously as he pointed to Cameron, John and Cameron stopped in their track, both looking at Derek.

"Well, she did ask for it" Sarah shrugged before continuing to get her own food.

Derek looked at Cameron then back to Sarah, then to John who merely shrugged to his uncle, Cameron resumed getting some food, as unhealthy as it was, then followed John back to his room. 

* * *

 

As John and Cameron left Derek looked at Sarah with a small amount of disgust.

"I can't believe you ordered pizza for _it_." He moved up closer to Sarah as he shook his head in disbelief. "Why waste money and food on that thing? It doesn't _need_ to eat like we do, it _can’t_ taste, so it can't fully _enjoy-_ hell it can't enjoy _AT ALL_!" Sarah pulled herself back from Derek, not wanting his breath in her face. "And what's going on with those two, they're getting very chummy again aren't they? I thought we finally got it into John's thick skull that that THING can't be trusted and that it needed to be kept at arm's length if not further."

Sarah turned around to look at Derek finally tiring of hearing his complaints. "The cyborg needs food so it can keep itself looking human, we can't really have a protector for John walking around as a metal skeleton can we? The least people would do is talk, so for now she has to blend in. That means she needs to eat to keep her skin looking normal." Derek picked up Sarah calling the machine 'she' rather than 'it'. He didn't like where things were going. "As for those two, NOTHING is happening Derek, Cameron needs to protect John she can't really do that if she stays too far away from him can she?"

"Oh so it's a _SHE_ now, is it?" Derek asked with a smirk as he slowly rounded around the table. Sarah blinked only realising she had called Cameron a she rather than an ‘ _it’_. "What's happening to you and John, Sarah? Is that thing manipulating the two of you, bending you around it's metal fucking finger like pawns?" Derek groaned angrily casting his eyes towards the stairs.

"Just shut up Derek. Just shut up, before I MAKE you shut up. No, Cameron has said and done nothing to manipulate anyone, you are just being paranoid, and believe me, that's something when coming from me." Sarah stormed up towards Derek getting right up into his face. "Now eat the pizza and. Shut. The fuck. Up.” She glared daggers at him, a glare that pierced through his eyes and into his very soul.

Upstairs John and Cameron ate. John watched Cameron with mild interest as she continued to research Michael.

"You've been having an appetite recently huh?" John asked stifling a small chuckle. He watched Cameron turned around to look at him a blank expression on her face but a tilt of the head told him she didn't understand him, "you've been eating a lot today." He explained further to her.

"Yes," she began moving her head back to its proper position as she turned her body more to look at him easier, "my skin sheath had been running low on nutrition and other qualities it needs to appear young and healthy and also to aid it in regenerating when it is damaged. I have needed a lot of nourishment today to refill to an adequate level" she watched John nod slowly, realization on his face which quickly changed back to confusion.

"I see, but why so much?" he asked. "You've been eating a lot by your standards today"

Cameron took note of what she had eaten today and what she was currently eating now.

"Sarah's pancakes leave a lot of be desired in terms of nutrition" she explained before adding "… and taste." John chuckled a little at that. "And the food at school isn't much of an improvement, the quality barely passes acceptable of what is allowed to be served to Students. This pizza is, ironically, the best thing I've eaten today. In terms of what I need and by taste that is" she finished her explanation, her eyes never moved from John.

"Alright." He replied moments before a thought came to him, "you can taste?" he asked with a slight raised brow before putting some pizza into his mouth.

"Yes, Skynet was able to map and replicate the taste receptors on the tongue. I can taste, though not as you do."

"You can do a lot of things we can do can't you; humans I mean." John asked.

"Yes, I wouldn't be worth much if I couldn't." Cameron turned back around and continued her research.

' _She can do a lot of things we can do; feel heat, feel wind, enjoy the wind, taste. I wonder if she… no, she couldn't, that's entirely different.'_ John mentally battled himself, if Cameron was so advanced what else could she do? What was she fully capable of?

The night dragged on and Cameron had left John's room with his laptop, with his permission of course, and had entered her room to continue researching. John looked at his clock

' _6:29 Riley should be ringing any time soon'_ John thought to himself, suddenly his phone rang, he picked it up and answered and Riley confirmed it was her using the coding system John had told her to do.

"Hey John, I'm ready when you are. I'll meet you outside school, then we'll head out to the club, it'll be awesome; you'll love it." Riley exclaimed in an excited tone.

"Yeah great, meet you at school, five minutes, I'll see you there." John said in return then hung up. He walked out of his room, and down the stairs. His mother wasn't there and Derek was most likely in the basement.

' _Awesome'_ he thought before sneaking out, and rushing towards the school.

Cameron had heard everything; the phone ringing, the phone call, and John sneaking out. She brought up a local map on her HUD and selected the fastest route to school by vehicle. Cameron opened her door and walked down the stairs grabbing the keys for the Sarah's car and her black jacket as well then drove towards the school hoping to keep out of sight. She must not let John know she was following him. 

* * *

 

John and Riley met outside the school, greeted one another and made their way towards the club. Cameron had gotten to the school before either of them, had turned off the car and stayed hidden within it, she was now tracking them slowly. Unknown to John, Cameron had researched possible clubs that were the latest "thing" in teen groups, one club came up which had were selling tickets just liked the ones she had seen Riley have. She had located a reasonable parking space in an alley way just next to the club then she could follow them inside and keep an eye on John from a far.

Riley showed the bouncer the tickets and let them in. Riley smirked to herself as she lead John in.

"So pretty cool huh? This place has been around since like the 80s. People just bought it up and refurbished it. Sweet huh?" Riley said to John who was looking around the place slowly, the booming of the music, echoing in his ear drums, some old 80s track. The teens, and other people across generation in the club were dancing to the music enthralled by the orgy of sound and light. He didn't notice one camera zoom in on his face.

Within the club the new Security Chief was looking at multiple screens, taking in every detail of each one, he would not lose his target if it showed up, while it had only been at the job one night, it was still hopeful, or as hopeful as a machine like itself could get. If this place was indeed "the" place for Teenagers, John Connor would show up eventually.

Something caught its eye in its peripheral vision, it turned its head to look at the screen, a young male with an excited young lady. The machine focused in on the boy, the girl spoke to the boy, to which he never replied, the machine zoomed in with the camera.

**_TARGET IDENTIFIED - JOHN CONNOR  
MISSION: TERMINATE_ **

The machine's eyes opened a little wider, and picked up its radio and contacted the bouncer.

"Stan." It spoke, having learned that using first name terms and a friendly attitude with humans of this time seemed to make them more receptacle to request or demands. "The brown haired kid with the blonde girl, don't let them out, stay where you are but don't let them leave." He spoke out he looked on one camera as the large bald bouncer looked to the camera and nodded.

The machine holstered its pistol and stormed out of its office, not noticing a young brown haired girl walk past the bouncer as he turned to get back to work.

The Machine entered the Main room, pounding music and flashing lights greeting it. Somewhere in this room was John Connor. Tonight John Connor would be terminated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jason's Notes:  
> I thank all who have enjoyed the first chapter now comes the second. I hope you are all enjoying it and continue to do so. I am open to suggestion regarding anything and I am more than happy to read reviews, I love reading what you thought. Thanks again.


	3. Where it all Began. Pieces Falling Together

Hello everyone Chapter three is already here. Man I'm banging these out quick, which makes me happy yes. Thanks to all my readers, and thanks or all the reviews, I love reading them, cheers.

Terminator

Bond of Steel and Bone

Chapter 3

Where it all Began. Pieces Falling Together

* * *

 

Cameron watched as the bouncer turned to look at the camera, she didn't know why he had done it nor did she care at this moment in time, she put herself behind a group of female teens and followed them towards the main doors, the bouncer took note of the girls, which allowed Cameron to slip around and into the club unseen, she looked across the room to the neon lit name of the club.

'Tech Noir'

Cameron tilted her head before walking further into the club, the blaring of the loud music pounding into her CPU. She recognized the track as an old 80s classic " _Burnin' in the Third Degree_ " by Tahee Cain. Cameron stopped to look across the glass window at the dancing people before her. John was here somewhere.

"Hey" came a voice from behind, a girl possibly from one of the group of girl, "that girl didn't pay" the girl complained, the bouncer turned and walked up behind the motionless girl and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Miss-" was all he could get out before Cameron reached to his hand wrapping her slender hand around it and crushed his hand, she would not be slowed down or deterred. The man cried out in pain falling to his knees as Cameron ignored him and walked into the club further, she stalked around the perimeter and began to fade away into the crowd.

* * *

 

Riley was dancing to the music playing loudly and vibrantly the lights flashing giving the atmosphere such life, the atmosphere intoxicating Riley, and to a much lesser extent John, who was dancing rather reluctantly more out of self-embarrassment, he wasn't a dancer, he knew that much. He wasn't even aware of the two machines looking for him intensely.

"Come on I wanna sit down" John called out, Riley, who was bouncing, placed a hand near her ear unable to quite hear him, John leaned forward and spoke louder. "I'm gunna go sit down, you want a drink?" he asked, Riley had invited him, he may as well pay for drinks.

"Yeah!" she yelled out, her volume barely over audible. "You want a beer?" she asked.

"Nah just get me a soda!" He called back before giving her some money, "you get what you want!"

John walked over to a nearby table and sat down on it to rest his feet, as Riley happily walked over towards the bar.

The Triple Eight walked at a slow pace, its eyes scanning the area in front of it, each face highlighted on its HUD so far none were Connor, but he'd find him soon enough, he felt the two hidden weapons on his body, both were easily concealed under his uniform, and easily reachable.

* * *

 

Cameron scanned the area she had to find John and make sure he was safe, Riley was bound to do something stupid before long, hopefully John wouldn't pay the price for Riley's foolishness. Cameron slithered her way around the humans, some dancing along with the music, other drunk and trying to flirt with her. Some tried to get a little pushy, Cameron wasn't truly in the mood to deal with them and pushed them away with a bit too much force making them stumble into other people.

* * *

 

Riley was ecstatic. The rumors were true! They DID serve minors alcohol. As long as they paid extra and said nothing to the cops. Riley picked up the two drink before her pocketing John's change. A small beer for herself in her left hand, and a medium coke from John. She had to admit, it was very hot in the place, even with cooling fans positioned in various places. Riley smirked. Everything was going great, no Cameron, no distractions, just her and John, before long she could be Mrs Riley Connor. Wife of the savior of humanity. She herself could be legendary. She could get Cameron scrapped, she'd always have the best of the best, like John, bodyguards; human and, reluctantly, machines. She hated machines but having one as reliable as the older 800 series, they were reliable, and from what she remembered still in circulation in the resistance. Especially after the Triple-Eights began to go haywire and revert to older programming.

Riley was lost in thought as she accidentally bumped into someone, she looked up and smiled at him apologetically.

"Sorry" she continued on her way.

* * *

 

The Triple-Eight stalked around the outer rim of the club, he was coming up to the bar, so far no John Connor, thankfully Stan the Bouncer may be able to grab him if he tried to leave. Humans were nothing if useful at times, it mused. It was so intent on its search it hadn't noticed who it bumped into. A young girl's face looked at it smiling at it.

"Sorry" the girl spoke before walking off. The machine had glanced at her and was about to continue on, when it almost did a double take, the girl, that girl. The Blonde one. With Connor. The machine stalked forward keeping its eyes on the girl following her.

* * *

 

John listened to the song around him satisfied with his seat, he looked at the people before him, dancing and enjoying themselves, he felt a cold admiration and longing for those people. "Normal" people; they hadn't the weight of the world upon their shoulders and expectations to live up too, of all the things he'd heard about his future self: the _"Great General John Connor"_ , he both hated and admired him, a man so strong to call in tough decision when they needed to be made, he didn't think he could do it, didn't think he was up to it, but again, John hated him. On the other side of this shiny coin, was an ugly side, from what he heard, he was cold, almost ruthless, a monster of a man, possibly less human than the machines he had reprogrammed.

And yet still, everyone trusted him, even Cameron. She trusted him, whether she was programmed to or not, he didn't know. Derek trusted him, his future self, Derek almost seemed to worship him, and showed continuing frustration that he was not yet as strong as he would become.

' _But knowing what I know now, could I do it? Could I become like him? Cold, alone, a biological machine?'_ John questioned himself, he groaned putting his hands over his eyes and stretched, accidentally knocking over the salt and pepper pots, groaning he leaned down to pick them up, grabbing them he lifted his eyes and saw her.

* * *

 

Cameron moved past another drunken teen approximately in his later teens, Cameron wouldn't admit she was growing concerned for John's safety, she hadn't yet found him, and now she was at the actual dance floor, her eyes scanned the horde of humans she was coming up to, if John was amongst them she would never find him from this distance, she saw sudden movement in the corner near the dance floor and looked towards it.

' _John!'_ she'd found him, he was alone and picking something up from the floor. _'He is alone, where did Riley go?'_ she thought when suddenly, he looked up as if he had a sixth sense of being watched then his eyes sudden met hers. ' _He's seen me'_ she could see John looking at her confused as he sat up right. Cameron looked up further seeing someone walk up to him, she glared as Riley came up to him with two drinks in her hand, she smiled and said something to him. Cameron then noticed the large man following her with a blank expression on his face, she scanned him and her eyes opened wide in alarm. John had turned and saw her expression.

* * *

 

' _Cameron?'_ John thought as she stared right at him. He was confused but anger was growing up in him. _'She followed me. I can't… actually I can. I CAN believe it.'_ He grumbled mentally to himself as he sat up right the pots still in his hands.

"Hey John I'm back," Riley spoke from behind getting his attention.

"Oh hey," he replied as she placed his coke in front of him. John turned back around to look for Cameron. She was glaring daggers at Riley, which only seemed to anger him more, he was about to suggest they leave when he saw Cameron adjust her gaze, suddenly her eyes opened wide as she began to move closer. Confused John turned to see what she was looking at.

He saw a large man walk into the small clearing around his table, the man's eyes immediately locked onto him, and his hand shifted into his security jacket, John's eyes opened wide.

"Riley get down!" He reached out to grab her, Riley spun around seeing the man she'd bumped into pull out a long barrelled pistol with a tube over the barrel, she opened her mouth to scream as John grabbed her from behind and moved her aside.

A laser dot pointed at John as the machine fired the powerful 45 calibre bullet crashing through the flimsy seat John once sat in, piercing through it and slammed into the flesh of a man in the distance the man screamed out and fell onto his back.

John turned his attention immediately to the machine and threw the salt and pepper pots at the machine, the glass containers shattering against the machine's head, undamaged the machine flinched as the glass shattered and some of the salt and pepper went into its eyes.

The Triple-Eight turned seeing John run into the crowd, and continued to fire, the shots, the screams making people turn their attention to the killer machine as it fired, people started screaming in panic and running to the exit, it dropped the empty magazine from its pistol and slammed another into place and released the slide to chamber the round, it was about to continue in its assassination attempt when a flimsy metal chair and smashed into its face, the machine stumbled and turned seeing a young dark haired girl knock the empty pistol out of its hand with surprising strength, grab it then throw it across the room, people scream and scampered out of the way. John was left exposed, Riley was missing.

John gasped as he jumped over the DJs workspace, he looked around seeing people running for their lives, he hoped Riley was with them, he saw the machine go flying across the room as Cameron threw it.

"John. Run!" Cameron yelled out not taking her eyes off of the machine. Problem was John wasn't going to risk running out in the open, and began to move from cover to cover.

The machine got up as Cameron moved towards it, she reached out to grab just before it grabbed her arm, spun her around and threw her into the brick wall the wall smashed open as her hit the ground on the other side, the machine heard feet scampering around behind it, pulling out its second concealed weapon a fully automatic Uzi 9mm, a weapon it had "purchased" as a carbine, chopped down the barrel and converted to full auto. The machine opened fire with a stream of bullets, a girl shrieking was heard.

' _Riley! She didn't leave!'_ John thought to himself as he looked from his new hiding space, he could see Riley on the ground, she was unhurt, just startled. _'Why didn't she leave?!'_ John questioned suddenly in alarm. The Triple-Eight advanced on her position Uzi still in hand, Cameron was just getting back up as the Machine turned to see Riley.

Riley looked up as the machine moved around the pillar to look at her. Horror dawned over her face as she gazed at the incarnation of Death. It was just like Mexico all over again. The Machine raised the Uzi towards her.

"HEY, HEY OVER HERE!" John called out jumping up from his hiding spot, the machine turned and towards his voice, Cameron herself looked towards John in alarm. The Triple-Eight opened fired immediately as John dived towards another cover, the bullets ripped through the speakers he was hiding behind and crashed into the rock pillar he hid behind.

Cameron ran towards the machine, she had to protect John, she must! The machine turned towards Cameron and opened fire, the bullet pierced her skin sheath but dented against her metal frame, the magazine ran dry. The Triple-Eight dropped the Uzi then reached out to grab her, Cameron, while not as strong or as heavy, was faster, and more agile, she ducked under its reaching arm, grabbed the limb with both hands and threw it against across the room and through the hole that she was used to make.

"Run John Now!" Cameron called out again, quickly making her way towards the machine.

John looked out and decided to chance it he ran towards Riley seeing the girl get up slowly.

"Just like Mexico all over eh? What are the odds?" John tried his best to joke, but Riley looked at him terrified.

"Yeah." She finally replied. "Small world" Riley and John began to make their way towards the exit when they heard a small crashed against in the building. John stopped immediately and turned around.

"Come on John!" Riley cried out.

"No. I've got to see if she's okay" John told her, his voice wavering a little in panic.

"You can't help her John. It's what she does" Riley blurted out. John was about to protest when he turned to look at her confused and shocked.

"What…?" he asked slowly trying to get through his mind what she said.

"She's your sister, like back at school, she's always looking out for you" Riley replied quickly, before another crash was heard.

John released his hand from Riley's and ran towards the crashing noise. "Cameron!" he called out panicking, he stopped and looked down, the Machine's pistol, he grabbed it and checked the slide and magazine, loaded and ready, he panted slowly closing his eyes for a brief second before running through the hole, and followed the destruction created by the two battling machines.

* * *

 

The Triple-Eight brought down the two foot shard of steel, it had ripped from some steel foundation of the club, upon Cameron's head making her fall to her knees, it lashed out again viciously with the piece of steel, Cameron dropped down lower before the attack hit, landing onto her stomach, she grabbed the machines legs then jumped up onto her feet as fast as she could pulling the feet up with her, flipping the machine onto it's back.

Cameron straddled the machine's chest and began punching it repeatedly in the face, her fists beginning to tear away the skin sheath revealing more and more shiny Titanium-Coltan hyperalloy.

The machine's head jolted back and forth as Cameron continued to hit it, hoping to damage its eyes, the machine brought its arm back up the piece of steel bending as it hit Cameron with great force causing her to fall off of it.

The machine rolled over onto Cameron and brought down the weapon like a blade wanting to impale it through Cameron's throat to server her head from her body, Cameron grabbed the weapon, her skin sheath slicing open as the bladed edge of the weapon cut into her. The steel piece began to slide from her grip, her blood lubing her grip making the blade slide a further, her left eye twitched before she tightened her grip around the metal causing it to bend, her grip reinforced.

The machine let go of the weapon, grabbed Cameron and threw her through a steel door, the door buckled under protest at her weight being rammed against it. Cameron got up slowly dropping the steel piece, she looked up just as the machine lifted its foot and kicked her sending her crashing through the door.

The machine made its way into the room as Cameron got up, it lashed out with a powerful fist, Cameron dodged the attack and grabbed the arm with one hand before thrusting her fist up into the machine's elbow bending parts of the alloy of its endoskeleton. The triple-Eight reached out with its other arm, only for Cameron to duck under it wrap her hands around it and throw the Triple-Eight over her shoulder and slam it down onto the ground causing it to crack under its weight.

The Triple-Eight reached out and grabbed her leg with its right arm, in an attempt to bring her to the ground, it's arm whined as it tried to move at the elbow, the damage Cameron had done preventing it from moving. Cameron acted fast bringing her left booted foot up only to send it smashing into the machine's skull sending it skidding across the ground. Cameron looked around for anyway to end the machine quicker, she looked ahead seeing a fuse box. An adequate tool.

The Triple-Eight slowly got to its feet in front of her she rushed towards it and kicked its torso sending it stumbled back it's back slamming against the fuse box cover, the machine looked back seeing what it was it'd hit. A threat, but also its own tool. Cameron stormed towards the machine which grabbed its damaged arm and forced the joint back into place, a temporary repair. Cameron grabbed the machine only for it to break her grip on it, grabbing her shoulder it turned and slammed her against the fuse box, before kneeing in the stomach region while pulling back on her head causing her to fall to one knee, the machine reached out with its damaged arm and ripped the cover off of the fuse box.

It slammed the cover against her head causing her to momentarily flinch, giving it enough time to grab her, it prepared to send her crashing into the fuse box before familiar sound shots were fired, shots that slammed into its back, it turned around immediately.

**TARGET PRIORITY- JOHN CONNOR  
MISSION: TERMINATE**

Distracted, Cameron grabbed the machine from behind spun it around and send it head first into the fuse box, before jumping back as it's body arched with electricity.

Cameron watched at the sparking machine John walked up towards her carefully.

"You okay?" he asked, worry evident in his voice.

Cameron turned around to look at him. "Yes John thank you for your concern." Cameron responded. Cameron turned back around as electricity licked through the machines body still, the lights around them surging before overloading and blowing.

"I suggest we leave immediately." Cameron looked at John from the darkness. "I brought Sarah's car, there is a tool box in the trunk"

"Alright, you get the Triple-Eight out of here, remove it's chip just in case, I'd like to think that that surge did a little more than just put it into reboot, but I'd rather be safe than sorry." John instructed her.

"If that were true John, you wouldn't have come out with Riley." Cameron pointed out, John narrowed his eyes at her.

"Riley couldn't have known this thing was here Cameron, look, this isn't open for discussion. Get this thing out of here, I saw cameras around this place, delete the footage, and pull the car round to the front, cops will be here any minute, I'm going to go see if Riley left." John handed Cameron the machine's pistol before running off leaving Cameron to deal with the cyborg.

* * *

 

"Riley!?" John called out as he re-entered the dance floor. The girl in question began to run towards him from her hiding place.

"John, oh thank god you're okay." Riley went to embrace John but he grabbed her arms stopping her.

"Are you okay?" the girl nodded frantically I response. "Okay then." John looked around then picked up the Uzi and the empty magazines.

"What are you doing John?" Riley asked, as he pocketed the 45 magazine and loaded in the empty Uzi magazine.

"Not throwing away free stuff" he replied. "Come on Cameron is meeting us up front" John said as he dragged her to the door, the sound of police sirens were heard in the distance.

As if on cue Cameron came around in the car.

"Get in!" she ordered, John got into the back with Riley, Cameron didn't voice her displeasure, though she glared at the girl from the mirror, Cameron drove off away from the club.

"You okay Cameron?" John asked against as a scared Riley leaned on him. John was trying to see her eye through the mirror, but the darkness made it hard too.

"I'm alright John, thank you for your concern." Cameron replied again she glanced at John through the mirror before returning her eyes to the road.

"My sister's a real bad ass" John joked trying to lighten the mood to Riley. Riley looked at him and just nodded slowly. He looked back to Cameron. "Hey, can you drop Riley off at home?"

"No John it’s okay, just drop me off half way, I'll walk the rest, I need some air." Riley said her voice quiet and weak. John nodded reluctantly.

Later Cameron dropped Riley off John got out and embraced Riley who clung to him desperately.

"I'll eh, I'll see you later John" she said slowly before turning away and walking off, John merely gave a "yeah" as a reply before getting into the car next to Cameron.

* * *

 

The ride was quiet and awkward, John looked very thoughtful, trapped in his own mind as he thought about the current events. He looked over to Cameron.

"You followed us" he said, however there was no anger, or hate in his words.

"My mission is to protect you John, I have to keep an eye on you, it seems I was right to do so." Cameron said before turning her head a little and looked at him before looking back to the road.

"Yeah, and thank you for that. I'd have been dead if it weren't for you, again." John admitted before letting out a deep sigh. "If that Triple-Eight hadn't come, I'd have been angry that you followed us. But, I guess this just proves one thing." He sighed in a defeated tone.

"What?" Cameron asked not even bothering to look at him.

"Machines are everywhere and they're all trying to kill me" he sighed and looked forward.

"I'll protect you John, I won't leave you." Cameron said softly, caringly, she turned to look at John, her eyes seemed alive, alive with something, what John couldn't tell, but he'd seen that look before, somewhere.

"Thank you" John replied smiling at Cameron a little. There was a minute or so of silence before, "I'm putting her in danger aren't I?" John spoke out suddenly.

"Yes, but I understand, however irrational it is" Cameron said in her soft tone. "I won't tell Sarah. She'll freak." The two drove into the driveway, as Sarah opened the door to look at them.

"Oh shit." John said looking up at his mother, Cameron parked the car and John got out slowly.

"Where the hell have you been?" Sarah asked. John was about to open his mouth.

"We went out for a drive." Cameron spoke out in her monotone voice as she got out of the car. Sarah looked at Cameron curiously. "John said he wanted to think, so I offered to take him around for a drive." Cameron stared at Sarah, almost daring her to challenge her word.

Sarah looked to John. "Why a drive?" she asked.

"You know." John thought on his feet. "I wanted to look at the world, in case we failed, really look at what we'd lose" John almost felt bad about how easy that came out, almost.

Sarah seemed somewhat pleased with his words and smiled at him.

"I know, but we're doing all we can to make sure we don't lose it. We won't lose it, I promise" Sarah said as John and Cameron walked up to the house, John had tidied himself up as had Cameron.

"Thanks mom, I think I'm gunna go straight to bed, that okay with you?" he asked, in truth he was tired, physically, mentally and emotionally tired. Sarah nodded as Cameron walked in behind John and followed him upstairs. Sarah closed the door behind them.

' _My poor boy.'_ Sarah thought to herself and smiled.

* * *

 

Upstairs John flopped onto his bed with a loud groan, Cameron stood up infront of him.

"What a night" he sighed before rolling onto his back and pressing himself against the headboard of his bed.

"It wasn't satisfactory" Cameron quipped, John looked up at her and chuckled darkly.

"You got shot" he pointed out, Cameron nodded in return. "Want me to help with that?"

"I got shot in the torso. You might be uncomfortable with certain points of impact."

"I know." John sighed and looked at nothing in particular. "But I owe you that at least." John insisted. Cameron hesitated before removing her black jacket, and placing it on John's chair. Before lifting her T-shirt just below her breasts and rolled it to make sure it didn't fall down, her lifted shirt revealed the multiple bullet wounds.

John looked at the wounds at winced, it dawned on him once more after so long what Cameron puts herself through just to protect him, he reached under his bed and pulled out his small tool box, and pulled out some pliers.

"You ready?" he asked himself more than Cameron, this never bothered her, she just nodded in response. "Okay lay on my bed, and I'll get started" John noticed there were further bullet holes higher than her shirt. Cameron noticed this however and spoke up.

"I'll remove those later, as they would make you feel awkward" she said her eyes staying on him as he began to work.

"Thanks" he said as the pliers gripped around the first bullet and worked it out.

John and Cameron were in silence as he worked, Cameron's focused stayed on John as she analyzed every feature of his face, every detail, the way his eyes moved and his eye lids narrowed a little as he focused on the bullets in her body. There was positive feedback in her CPU as she looked at John, she found his face pleasing, his eyes were much more alive than the John she knew in the future, his morality was much different from his future self as well, he cared about everyone in some measure, he felt responsibility for anyone who got hurt because of him. She tilted her head a little as she looked him over.

Soon enough he was finished.

"There. All done, well except for those" he pointed above her top.

"Thank you John." She sat up and he smiled a little. "However could I ask of one thing?" she asked suddenly, Jack frowned a little but nodded in confirmation. "Could you get these in my back?" Cameron began to turn around.

"I don't remember you getting shot in the…" John stopped when he saw the wounds, his eyes opened wide and his mouth opened a little. "When did this happen? Your wounds they, they look rotten." He looked at the yellow discoloured skin hugging around different sized wounds from her front.

"Affirmative" she clarified. "These wounds are from the attack this week, the T Triple-Eight was wielding a Five Fifty-Six carbine, and a few struck my back, I have been too preoccupied to remove them, thus the flesh has started to rot." She explained.

"Why. Why didn't you ask me to remove these before?" he asked confused and in shock at the sight of them. Cameron was quiet for a moment.

"You were angry with me John, I did not wish to bother you" Cameron explained, her tone definitely a sad one. John felt sudden dread overcome him, she hadn't come to for help because he was angry at her.

' _For what?'_ he asked himself. _'For protecting me? For stopping me lying to myself that I can be normal, that I can have a life?'_ John felt like he'd been shot, stabbed and kicked. He felt awful.

"Will these heal up when the bullets are removed?" he asked his voice trembling a little.

"No." she began, John looked at her mortified, she looked back to him. "The rotten area will have to be removed before regeneration can begin…" she was interrupted suddenly by John.

"Say no more, I'll pull out the bullets, then I'll cut around the rotten pieces" he said and immediately got to her on her once more.

"Thank you." Was all Cameron said before she looked forward.

John placed the removed 5.56 rounds and put them next to the bent 9mm rounds. John was sweating, these ones were harder to pull out due to their design, but he persisted.

' _I've been a real ass. To everyone, mom, Cameron, to Der … to Cameron. They haven't deserved my attitude. I've been a big baby, some leader I'm turning into'_ John chastised himself as he thought about his mood and personality recently.

John finished Cameron's back before reaching into his tool box and pulling out a small scalpel.

"Thanks for not telling mom" he said as he began to cut around the yellowish rotten flesh, puss bursting from the flesh as the scalpel blade cut into it.

"You're welcome. You escaped a near death experience, the last thing you needed was Sarah to yell at you, the stress from her yelling may have had negative side effects, so I prioritized your health first, however you need to be more careful in future. Please John." She turned around to look at him, John looked into her eyes as saw the life within them, and dare he say it, emotion. "I do not want to lose you." She said softly, if John hadn't known better he would have thought Cameron was about to cry. He smiled a small sad smile and nodded.

"I'll be more careful next time, I promise." He said as Cameron turned back around to let him continue. "If there is a next time" he mumbled to himself, but Cameron detected it.

"Why do you say that John?" she asked curiously but didn't turn around allowing him to continue his work.

"I don't know, I think. I think I have a lot to think about tonight. A lot to think about" he sighed sadly as he continued to cut off the yellow flesh. "How long will these take to heal?" he asked turning to a different subject.

"It should take approximately a day or two to heal over" she informed him, John gave her a curious but amused look.

"Approximately a day or two? No days, hours minutes?" he joked. Cameron however didn't pick up on his humour.

"Negative. I've learned people don't like exact time. You taught me that" she said turning her head and looked at him from the corner of her eye. She could see him smiling as he cut a ring around another piece, she saw his disgusted look as more yellow flesh was removed from her body.

To John, the task couldn't have been completed soon enough, the finally removed the last piece of rotten skin.

"All done" he said, Cameron lowered her shirt and looked at the bullets and removed flesh.

"Thank you John. It is nice to have help" she gave him a small smile that he'd been seeing a lot of lately, but he felt no less privileged to see it.

"You're welcome. You eh, couldn't do me two favours could you?" John asked, Cameron looked at him interested at how she could assist him. "Well one, could you get rid of the flesh and bullets for me?" Cameron nodded. "And two, can you get that machines CPU for me and dump it in the shed, we'll get rid of it tomorrow."

"I could melt it down tonight while everyone is asleep, however I would prefer to retrieve some spare parts from it." Cameron replied, seeing as how it'd be safer to get rid of it while no one notices.

"Um yeah sure, go ahead." John replied with a smile, Cameron smiled back before getting up and leaving. "You hang on to the CPU, I'm gunna get some sleep. Kay?"

"Okay John, goodnight"

"Night Cameron."

Cameron left the room and closed the door quietly, John kicked off his jacket, and shoes before laying back down on his bed. His mind wrapping itself around what had transpired that day, or more to the point that night.

" _You can't help her John. It's what she does"_ John thought about Riley's words back at Tech-Noir. Now he hadn't been panicking, now that he was relaxing, he could focus more on details, about what he saw. Her words burned brightly into his head.

' _It's what she does.'_ John thought to himself. She had related her words to what had happened in school with Cameron defending him against the Jock, but this was entirely different. It was then he saw the momentary look of shock when he called her out on it. It was then he realized she hadn't even cared about Cameron during the entirety of the night, asking her how she was, if she was hurt. But that wasn't all, she stayed while everyone else left, true he too should have left, but he had an idea of what he was up to. But she didn't and yet she stayed.

"Just. Like. Mexico." John said quietly to himself his eyes opening wide. Riley was beginning to seem stranger and stranger.

' _You can't help her John.'_ She had told him. But how would she know he couldn't help Cameron against the machine, everyone else saw an insane nut with a gun, sure scary but unarmed he'd look like just some big guy, so why didn't Riley think he could help… unless she knew he was a machine.

Realization began to dawn on John, his eyes opening wide as he put the pieces of the jigsaw together. Riley knew about the machines. Knew Cameron was a machine. Then she knew who he was.

"I'm so fucking stupid" John groaned to himself and he put his hands over his face. "It's Cameron Philips all over again" he grumbled, connecting the two girls together, both were playing a role to get close to him, Cameron to protect him, Riley, possibly for her own needs, or uses, she didn't look, or act like a soldier. So how did she get here, and what was her purpose.

John realized the lies and the deceit and the betrayal, but oddly. He didn't care. He was annoyed but he wasn't heart broken. His supposed girlfriend had been lying to him, and yet he couldn't care. But why? He knew he didn't love Riley, but he had tried, pretended to.

His thoughts went back to Cameron. She'd been right all along, Riley couldn't be trusted, she'd been right and he'd been blind, and all this time he'd been fooling himself into thinking a normal girl would like him, he couldn't have a normal life, normal friends, not for long anyway, or a normal girlfriend.

Riley wasn't what he wanted in a woman or girl, he realized that now, but what was his ideal woman? Thinking to what could happen what would be his ideal woman? Definitely a strong willed woman, so she'd be able to take the upcoming apocalypse and what his life entailed into stride. But where would he find a woman like that? A woman strong enough to face it with him, no matter what happened, a woman who would never leave him, would always care… about…him.

"Oh" John said softly to himself as he stared at the ceiling. He knew one girl like that. Correction he knew two women like that, one being his mother. "I am not dating my mother…" he said sternly to himself. But. There was still Cameron. "Could I love Cameron?" he wondered. "Does Cameron love me?"

' _John I love you, I love you John and you love me!'_ Cameron's voice cried out, those words he'd heard on his 16th birthday, they still haunted him, were they true? How could he find out. He grumbled to himself. He'd sleep first before he thought anymore, it was late, and he was exhausted.

* * *

 

The scene at Tech-Noir was crawling with police, tape everywhere cornering off sections. One police officer walked into the scene and looked around.

"So what happened?" she asked one of her co-workers. A male police officer turned to look at her and rubbed his forehead.

"Some nut job, security guard goes nuts and starts shooting up the place, witnesses say he started firing at some kid, then tried to kill everyone else." The cop replied. "Problem is, we can't find the weapon or the guy."

The female officer nodded and walked into the club, carnage was what she saw, but she saw it lightly and smirked, she looked at the large hole that some forensics lab workers were looking over, the officer looked around the area in more detail she came up on the bullet riddled DJ work station, she peered over and saw a small blood splatter on the wall, she looked around making sure no one saw her and stepped around to look at it, she bent down to get a better look, she leaned forward and dragged her tongue over the blood licking it up, she clapped her mouth together as if tasting it.

**DNA MATCH COMPLETE. 87% COMPATIBILITY**  
**SUBJECT: JOHN CONNOR**  
 **PRIMARY TARGET**

The woman's eyes opened wide suddenly. John Connor, she'd found him, at last after, well, after a _VERY_ long time. She smirked, he was in the area somewhere. She'd find him eventually, but for now, she had to get ready, fore tomorrow she had an unscheduled appointment.

* * *

 

John sat up suddenly in a big sweat, he panted slowly his eyes bugged out. His nightmare was similar to others, but his friends, his family, they turned on him, they were machines, Derek, Morris, Riley, his Mother. They had all been machines trying to get close for him for their own personal gain, or more specifically to kill him. John groaned and leaned forward and rubbed his eyes. Saturday.

"What a way to start the weekend" he grumbled to himself. There was a knock on the door. "Hello?" he asked, the door opened to reveal his cyborg protector.

"John. Sarah has called you down for breakfast" she informed him

"Thanks. Oh hey did you, you know?" he asked not wanting to say it out loud just in case.

"Yes John. The Triple-Eight is gone, but it's chip was boobie trapped and melted, I am sorry." She almost seemed to regret informing him, John felt let down. Not by Cameron but not retrieving the chip.

"Alright. Thank you for trying." He smiled at her, which got a smile in return, he got up and walked to the door then followed Cameron downstairs.

"Hey mom" John called out to Sarah as she sat at the table, pancakes on a plate infront of her, another opposite her and a smaller stack next to him.

"Hey John" she smiled to him before going back to reading the newspaper she had been reading.

John sat down next to Cameron, who was now watching him intently, he didn't notice however as he cut a slice of the pancake and reluctantly putting it into his mouth, only to find it full of flavour and fluffy to the tongue, John almost did a double take as he began to chew, he looked over to his mother who was now looking at him with a smirk.

' _No, this couldn't be mom's cooking, but then…'_ he turned his head slowly to look at Cameron staring at him, as if waiting.

"You cooked these didn't you?" he asked slowly as if he'd say something stupid.

"Yes John. What do you think, do you like them?" Cameron asked innocently, but inside she desperately wanted his approval, though why she cared so much about his approval of something as mundane as cooking she couldn't tell.

"Actually, yeah. I do." He said almost surprising himself.

Suddenly Cameron had her answer. John's answer sufficiently gave her what she wanted, her CPU was registering a load of positive feedback which made Cameron smile genuinely. She liked making John happy. It gave her a positive sense in her CPU. She watched him further, blinking a little to make him more comfy with her watching, the positive feedback, this positive sense increased as she watched John eat slowly, taking each bite of her pancakes as if it'd be his last, savouring every piece. Cameron was almost beaming at him. Cameron offered him her pancakes, which he accepted only after she insisted, she didn't need any more food for a while. John ate her load happily too.

After breakfast Cameron was preparing herself for her unscheduled meeting with Michael P. Hamburg. John was washing up the dishes, a small thank you it seemed to Cameron for cooking.

"Plans today John?" Sarah asked him curiously.

"Today? Yeah; thinking, lots of thinking." John told them, he did have a lot to think about he told himself, things needed sorting out, his life needed to be put back together in a more stable way, it'd never be a perfect life, but it was his, and he'd make the most of it.

Both Cameron and Sarah looked at him confused, though their expression were different, Cameron had her standard blank facial expression while Sarah had a raised questioning brow, the two females looked at one another for a brief moment saying nothing, Sarah shrugged and got back to her paper.

"I'm going for my meeting with Hamburg. It should take me 2 hours and," Cameron stopped herself trying to put what she'd learned into better practise, "it should take me around three hours to get there, give or take depending on the traffic."

John smiled at Cameron, using a more human way of speaking, he actually felt a little, proud of her. Sarah looked at Cameron as she had John.

' _What world have I woken up too?'_ Sarah thought to herself, she considered pinching herself incase she was still asleep, but thought to do it in privacy.

Cameron turned and left closing the door behind her.

Derek came up out from the basement.

"The metal finally gone?" he asked as he walked across to the kitchen.

"Yeah she just left." John said deciding to ignore the term "metal" Derek stopped next to John and looked at him.

"She? Hmph. Don't get comfortable with it John, it's not a girl, it never was and never will be, it's a killing machine, that's all it can do, that's all it does no matter what the reason." Derek said his voice cold and dark. John turned to look at his Uncle.

"That and make good pancakes" he commented as he put the last plate away he'd just dried.

Derek blinked confused at what John just said. "What?"

"And make good pancakes. Cameron makes good pancakes" John said as he leaned against the sink.

"You actually ate food, it prepared? Didn't you even consider it could have been poison?" Derek grumbled his frustration already rising.

"Poison? Really? Sure maybe if she made you some. But she's had plenty of chances to kill me and mom Derek." John commented.

"Yeah and she nearly did one day remember?" Derek smirked bring up the infamous 16th birthday. John visibly winced, he should have seen that coming.

"Alright yeah, sure. We almost got killed, but we didn't, we're alive now. We're okay, for the time being." He replied. "Besides, we need Cameron, she's our best defense against Skynet right now, she's the only one who can take on a machine head to head and even hope of winning, we can't if you remember" John said. He felt good about himself defending Cameron, like he'd done before the incident. Why did this make him feel so good? He didn't rightly care at the moment.

"You watch it John, one day she'll put a gun to your head and try and kill you" Derek warned pointing a finger at John. John grabbed it and twisted it causing the old soldier to bend towards his finger trying to not get it broken.

"And you listen to me. She has tried to kill me before, she failed. She can't kill me, she WON'T kill me, do I make myself clear Reese? I'll argue with you later, but so far I've been having a good morning, and today I got a lot on my mind. So right now, I'm not in the mood." John warned, his voice seemed to change, at least Derek could hear it, the strong tone of voice of General Connor was demanding the Lieutenant to shut the fuck up. And he would do so. For now.

"Ah alright, alright, let go of my finger, I use that one to shoot things!" Derek said, almost begged, John let go, then walked back upstairs towards his room.

"I wonder who taught him that" Sarah quipped chuckling as she took a sip of black coffee. She herself decided to try and relax for the day, the events of the week had been tense. Seeing as it was Saturday, she'd rest for now. Derek looked at his finger and rubbed his caringly before scowling at the older Connor.

* * *

 

Cameron was driving along, parts of her CPU focused on driving, the rest and the majority was thinking about John. Since Monday their relationship had improved dramatically, she preferred this closer relationship, it made it easier to protect him if he was inclined to bring her with him where ever he went, within reason. However, things were becoming different, or rather they had been different since the car bomb, Cameron didn't know why she stayed with John and put up with him yelling at her, she hadn't given it much analysis. Cameron began to analyze John in a more detailed way; physically, he appealed to something in her CPU, how or why she didn't know, but in simple terms, she found him attractive, he was handsome.

' _Very Handsome'_ Cameron corrected. This made her smile, this positive feedback she'd been receiving from her CPU had her confused as to what it was, she didn't understand what her CPU was going through, but she admitted, she found it pleasant, dare she say, she liked it, it made her feel, it made her feel good. John made her feel good.

She further analyzed her relationship with John, he was her target, she was his protector, but why did she try and please him, no matter how small the task, be it breakfast or not killing Riley, why did she seek his approval over everyone else's, why did John make her feel so good, other than his looks, why did John make her feel so good? How did he make her _feel_ in the first place? She'd have to ask John about this later. Hopefully he'd understand.

' _John always understands'_ she told herself, she smiled to herself as she thought of John, then the thought of John when he dropped his bath towel, her smile grew.

Cameron parked up in the car park in front of the large building labelled "Hamburg Industries" she walked towards the front door, not noticing the woman who strolled up next to her, both females opened the door at the same time and walked towards the elevator doors, they opened and the two got in. Cameron stopped, she looked over to the woman and looked her up and down sizing her up, she had long jet black hair, about as long as Cameron's in scale to their body, this woman was also a few inches taller than her, possibly about the height of Derek, the woman looked at Cameron and smiled.

"Hi, floor six please" the woman asked. Cameron relaxed, or her version of it, cyborgs didn't bother with small talk, Cameron press the button for the sixth floor, incidentally the floor she wanted, she looked straight ahead not noticing the woman do the same.

Once the door opened both women marched out of the door and towards the reception area to Michael Hamburg, both reached for the handle at the same time, the women looked at one another immediately. Cameron had been wrong, this woman was a machine, possibly using an infiltration program for small talk, easier to blend in.

The two women backed off from the door and stared one another down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jason's Notes:  
> I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, I love writing this story, and I love hearing your comments.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello to all you Terminator fans. This is my first Terminator fanfiction and I do hope I am doing the characters justice. I would much enjoy reviews telling what you think or what needs improving. Thank you.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. It was a pleasure to write and it is always a pleasure to edit and update as my skills progress
> 
> Best Regards.
> 
> Jason.


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